Call it investigative scouting; most would know it as a walk in the woods.
Strap on the boots, backpack with camera, binoculars, notepad and a few sample bags and head to a favorite habitat before the 2024 Spring turkey season begins April 17 or the trout catching gets better.
Note, too, when over-the-counter extra turkey authorization sales begin March 18. Renew the conservation patron license or turkey license, which will make it easier and quicker to purchase an extra authorization (permit), starting with Zone 1.
There are no rails or danger cones when the boots begin to hit the mushy soil. We’re in the woods this time for whatever comes along, not just the turkeys or squirrels.
Recently, I saw eight feathers sinking into a remaining snow bank. It was a pretty site with red tips and light tan bases making each feather. First, pause to ask what bird dropped them? Why not an entire red feather? Why such a concentrated drop of eight?
An ornithologist told me later that these were likely male cardinal body feathers, colored on the tips for show while the bases provide insulation and it would be a waste to color them. The bird likely had them pulled by a predator, rather than a bird doing a full body molt.
I noticed several saplings near the feathers were skinned bare, from tree base up to small twigs; assuring the tree will die. What animal found nourishment in the inner bark and freshly exposed xylem of what tree species?
A guess, with evidence, points to dexterous gray squirrels, eating fresh bark, maybe licking sap from this compound-leafed maple. Few will mourn the loss of a few box-elders.
Not one but two spike antlers were camouflaged among the white oak leaves. Which is the right side; which the left side? Might these have been an older buck during the last years of life, or a young animal about to begin growing new antlers from the scull? Diameters of the bases will give a good clue.
Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center in Portage, said several customers have found antlers, even matched sets, already.
“Turkeys are fanning and waterfowl are more abundant,” he said.
There’s a whiff of onion in the air. Not skunky like the marsh cabbage or a black and white but pleasing to many are these garden chives. Crushed leaves, round not flat like the grasses, hollow inside, points to a garden escape. Albeit small, a handful of leaves chopped finely might flavor an omelet.
Three young elm trees still stood, all dead with bark described as sliding off, all facing southwest on a gentle hill. Sun was flooding the soil and absorbed as warmth, causing green blades to show.
Trace the footsteps as soon as highs hit 75 degrees twice and thrice this spring. Unlike 2021, 2022 and 2023, morel mushrooms may finally appear in abundance.
Charlie Boone, at Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), said the agency recently adopted a newer version of the FDA Food Code, which includes updated language found in the Wisconsin Food Code. Taking effect January 2024, it allows a licensed food establishment to use foraged wild mushrooms. DATCP grants approval, but with documentation, that the wild mushrooms were obtained from a forager who has taken a mushroom identification course from a college, or a mycological society (study of fungi).
In short, if one intends to sell mushrooms that were legally picked (not on state property), the buyer may ask to see your certification because DATCP may ask the food business for this proof.
This is not a license to pick but a certificate confirming a forager knows some edible mushroom species.
Contact the Wisconsin Mycological Society regarding such a seminar offering.
Kate Mosley, at Kate’s Bait near Dodgeville, agreed with Williams, and Don Martin, at Martin’s in Monroe, that walleyes are biting on night crawlers. Martin said Yellowstone River, below the dam, and Williams said Wisconsin River are what’s been revealed.
— 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.
