Estimates of bird and other animal forecasts are now available for hunters, lookers, and travelers, who sometimes may be more concerned avoiding vehicle and animal collisions.
Grand growing conditions existed during much of the spring and summer in many regions. Locally heavy weather changed some autumn opportunities, however.
Cropland, while usually not officially measured as prime wildlife habitat, often is just that at times. Corn fields chopped for silage offer clear views where nearly everything and everyone were hidden since May.
No harvesting machinery is perfect and modern choppers and pickers sometimes disregard crop row structure, increasing the chances of waste grains hitting the ground, not the chopper boxes.
What’s left is a virtual feedlot with little cover for large wildlife, including turkeys, deer, geese and cranes. Even smaller animals — doves, crows, squirrels and raccoons — are left exposed, but hungry enough to chance it.
Some of the last alfalfa cuttings took all vegetation down to earth. Deer were left speechless until the stems regrow, Canada geese, turkey rafts and mourning doves find some of what they were seeking.
All said, a newly chopped cornfield, in a matter of hours of clearing, drew two sandhill cranes; nearly two dozen Canada geese; bucks, does and fawns, too numerous to count; and both grey and fox squirrels.
While hunting some of these animals directly is difficult or illegal, roadside viewing, population estimating, and wildlife photography are clearly an autumn’s dream. Where these animals came from, and where they go, may be useful to hunters, however.
Bow seasons are now open, archers and crossbowers hoping for cooler days, and may be content to spend more time on the Department of Natural Resources web pages studying the DNR’s deer metrics, early registrations reported weekly, or detailed forecasts.
Venturing hunters did report some lightly-spotted fawns, incomplete coat color changes in adult deer, and antlers still velvet-coated.
While ruffed grouse hunters are mostly waiting, too, Missouri trappers appear to be reaching their goal of taking 100 live birds southwest to that state’s new habitat. Others are studying the spring drumming counts, which showed significant decreases, and summer brood counts that gave somewhat mild encouragement.
An occasional hunter, hiker or other observer did report, albeit surprisingly, a fair number of grouse in the forest and bush. Who knows, maybe happy days are closer than hypothesized.
Turkey hunters continue to report very mixed rafts, birds and poults of all sizes, and some increasingly large bunches.
Other wildlife, too, seems to have spread their birthing, with half-grown grey squirrels the size of chipmunks and some fawns no larger than a new-born Holstein calf.
Sturgeon hook and line catching continues to be slow, while trout anglers are happy to venture out for the last month of a reasonably good season.
Vegetation is beginning to wane, autumn colors continue to show reds and yellows and bird migrations are overwhelming in some locations. A few are packing to leave.
Cooler days are coming and may give rise to colder days all too soon. Don’t let autumn slip past without taking full advantage of this short, but grand, season.
— Jerry Davis is an Argyle native and a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.
