The blackcap crop has been the best ever.  Until recently the gnats and mosquitoes have been quite tolerable.

While most outdoor recreationalists have their favorite “insect dope”, trout fly-fisher Bret Schultz in Black Earth, Wisconsin usually goes with Off for mosquitoes and Buggins for gnats. “I hear Buggins has put two ingredients together in one product that works for both “bugs,” but I haven’t tried it,” he said.

Plant-bothering insects including potato beetles and Japanese beetles can be counted on one hand.  Tobacco moths in the caterpillar stage have not appeared, and spongy moths got their fill of fungi and bacteria sicknesses last year and have not returned.

Morel season was a bust this spring, but get used to that because it is likely to be the new norm. Turkey season, with 50,287 birds registered, has been something to write home about all the way to Alabama.

Fawning and grouse, pheasant and turkey hatching appear to have had good weather, good feeding, and now good learning-to-fly weather.

Prairie blooms have been fantastic. Mushrooms are doing just that, mushrooming with a few oyster and sulphur shelf fruiting bodies beginning to take the edge off all those morel mysteries. Many other mushrooms for viewing only have shown their caps and stalks.

Gardens and farmers’ fields have looked good. Trout streams have been replenished by adding more of what anglers and fish need first, plenty of water. Keep bringing rains trout fishers are saying.

Hard mast crops including black walnuts, yellow-bud hickory nuts, bur oak acorns and even white pine seed cones seem to have turned the corner after an abrupt red light, which was likely a normal cycle stop sign.

Bur oak acorns, hazelnuts, hickory nuts, and black walnuts will mature this fall, while the white pine cones and red oak acorns that were initiated this spring will not mature before 2026. Those oaks and pines had cones and nuts that started last summer and they will drop in September.

Sharp-tailed grouse can be hunted this fall, with a lottery draw.

Ruffed grouse, while in a down part of a 10-year cycle, are showing signs of holding stronger than expected.

Deer watching, bald eagle fledging, and even nesting and feeding back yard birds have provided pleasures.

A recent trip past a second crop alfalfa cutting and windrowing was a sad image of two mature bald eagle sitting partially hidden by the rowed hay. Any observer can guess what these scavengers were fixed to feed on.

Wild ginseng fruit production appears strong and should provide ample seeds to plant in September by diggers and more importantly by landowners who rarely dig. The majority of the harvesters will be selective in taking only legal plants and then evaluate if the root should remain to grow another few falls.

Ginseng is Wisconsin’s state herb, but for a protected plant having a set harvesting season in September and October, it continues to be the target of a small number of unscrupulous characters.

A most ingenious, illegal, and disappointing tactic to get on private land to dig during and even before the open season, was crafted by a team of lawless characters posing as rattlesnake exterminators asking landowners’ renters if the renter wanted to have them look and destroy any snakes on their property. They went so far as to show a bagged, live, rattling snake while asking. Who could turn that gesture away? Of course, the snake handlers put the bag back in the truck, grabbed their screwdrivers, a typical ginseng digging tool, and went into the woods to sneak hundreds of plants and pounds of valuable ginseng. One such duel was apprehended and paid the price.

Jim Birkemeier, a retired forester in rural Spring Green, Wisconsin wonders if his turning off the solar kilns has disrupted the snakes in his area. “I’ve not seen many rattlers but they’ll be back. It goes in cycles,” he said.

Even raccoon scat carries good news with droppings loaded with raspberry seeds signaling a good crop and a good replanting, likely in new locations.

Deer are active, according to Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center in Portage, Wisconsin. Flies and other insects could be one reason behind the movement. Bret Schultz added deer flies to the list, too. “I’ve never seen deer go to the water and be so up and close to me, standing right in the water.”

“For people who want to see what deer are going to look like this fall need only to watch the alfalfa and soybean fields at dusk. They’re going for the fresh alfalfa and the bean leaves until the flowers and fruits begin to develop,” he said.  “It’s impressive seeing the healthy deer, lots of young rabbits, and don’t believe someone who says baby skunks don’t have active scent glands.”

July is still the toughest time to fish trout. Be careful so as not to stress a trout you plan to release.

“I use 66 degrees as a temperature cutoff point because most of those fish are not going to make it when released,” said Schultz. “I use that as a cut off and either go farther up the stream or comeback another day, earlier in the day, or find a smaller spring stream.”

Muskie fishers use a similar guide and fish cooler waters or a different time or another location. Even culling fish caught can be as much of a problem.

It appears outdoors recreation and gathering will only get better, too.

— Jerry Davis is a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.