Gary Howards, an outdoorsman from Oregon, Wisconsin calls it recreational scouting. He rides through the countryside on his motorcycle taking in the smells and sights simply to assess the state of the outdoors, all of the outdoors not just whether the bucks have shed antler velvet or if fawns are completely brown.
Wayne Whitemarsh, living in Sauk City, recently noticed picked sweetcorn fields being targeted by Canada geese and wheat fields feeding mourning doves.
“Looking brings up new, special recipes including a roast goose breast when I see and think about seeing gamebirds,” he said.
Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center in Portage, cautions riders and drivers to be aware of others, including farm equipment, on rural town roads.
“I’m not just out looking for deer but anything that’s out; grape vines with a few leaves changing and lots of turkeys and bunnies.”
A mature bur oak, open-grown the last 100 years, looked as though someone took a clippers to every oaknut limb. The twigs covered the pasture across the roadside fence.
The clipping machine was the ubiquitous fox squirrel, who was too heavy to climb out to get the hard mast, so it did the next best thing, chewed the twig, left the acorns fall and climbed down for a picnic.
It’s sightings like this that can help autumn gathering, either hunting squirrels or knowing that picking acorns for decorations would be a waste of time because only the cups remain.
Deer don’t understand why but they find soybean pods near the ground this year. July drought could be the answer. The does, fawns, and bucks will eat pods until a combine harvests them and then be back for waste beans on into 2024.
Just wondering what the annual vines are that drape fences and vegetation, now sporting spikes of white flowers? Wild cucumber, no doubt.
Fields of goldenrod yellows and Joe-pye weed purples create a pleasing picture of these attractive, contrasting colors. White pine seed cones are abundant, each cone dripping with resin glistening in the summer sun. All the better because the resin makes this a perfect package of tinder for a campfire or fireplace ignitor. Resin is flammable.
Head high bunches of BB-size berries, dark purple pass the test of being elderberries for jelly, wine, or places to stop and watch birds fill their stomachs after tiring of coneflowers and compass plant tiny fruits.
Wild turkeys will start seeking acorns as soon as frost puts the insects to bed for winter, maybe before.
Bird groupings, often migrating sandhill cranes or turkey vultures, are easy to spot. Vultures give away dead animal locations. Sandhill cranes are pleasing to watch.
Don’t shortchange roadside travels when late summer weather is too hot, cold, wet, or when feeling lazy. Get a fix on whether there are wild grapes, bittersweet berries, or even a few rose hips to feed an animal or decorate a cabin shelf for October.
— 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.
