Sunday, September 23, 2007

EHD Hits Middle Tennessee Hard

With temperatures in the mid 90s for the opening weekend of the Tennessee bow season, I decided that it was just too hot to hunt. I must be getting old... That didn't keep me out of the woods, however. After spending a couple hours on Saturday morning talking about pursuit-style hunting with Rambuck and Doug Markham on the Outdoors with Doug Markham radio show, I decided to put in some serious scouting time on a terrific piece of hunting land in the middle Tennessee area. OK, maybe I'm not that old.

First, the good news. I found many red oaks with good quantities of acorns, and several fruit-bearing persimmons. None of the mast was ripe yet, so none were dominant trees. I've noted the location of the trees on my topo map and will keep an eye on them as the season progresses. There are certainly some future dominant trees in the bunch.

I did find exactly two chinkapin oak acorns - the first and only acorns from the white oak family that I've found so far this year. I just happened to glance up and see them. I also found the first four rubs of the season.

Now the bad news. Middle and West Tennessee deer are experiencing a severe outbreak of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease or EHD. EHD is caused by a virus that is transmitted to deer by small biting insects called midges or no-seeums. Deer infected with EHD develop sores and severe swelling in their mouths, making eating and drinking difficult. According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, EHD is a common disease among deer but poses no risk to humans. It does, however, typically kill about a third of the deer that contract it. The TWRA has produced a very good informational podcast about the disease. Click here to view it.

Sadly, I found two terrific bucks that fell victim to the disease. The first was a tall-racked eight pointer that would probably score in the 120's.

The second was a very nice ten pointer that definitely would have made Pope and Young.

Both deer were found within 30 yards of water. I've been told that the severe drought this summer has aggravated the EHD outbreak by concentrating deer around water sources where the midges hatch. Even though both deer had obviously been dead for quite a while, neither had been seriously scavenged, which makes me believe that there must be lots of other opportunities for the buzzards and coyotes to fill their bellies. We could be in for a tough year...


Late 2007 Update: Reports from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency were that over half the deer population in certain parts of middle Tennessee were lost to EHD. The photo above shows the cracked hooves of a buck that I killed during muzzle loader season. He was limping noticeably as he approached, so I assumed he had been injured. I wasn't until I field dressed him that I discovered he was uninjured except for the cracked hooves. I discovered later that this is typical of deer that survive an EHD infection.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Tree ID - Persimmon

OK, we're going to shift gears and talk about a non-oak species. Persimmons are as close as a deer gets to candy. They usually don't grow in large enough quantities to qualify as a significant foodsource for deer, but if you find a large enough tree - or better yet, a cluster of large trees - you can be in for some fine hunting if the fruit is ripe and the deer have found them. I have to admit, when the persimmons are ripe, you're likely to find me feeding under a tree. Just make sure they are good and mushy, or you are in for some serious puckering.

Unlike most trees, persimmons are either male or female and only the females produce fruit. If you are exploring new hunting ground early in the year, before you can see developing fruit up in the tree with your binoculars, you can determine the sex of the tree by checking closely around the bottom of the tree, directly under the bushiest limbs. You are looking for dried up calyxes (or caps) and seeds like these:


















When you are looking, brush back the top layer of leaves because the fruit usually falls from the tree before the leaves do, so the evidence you are looking for tends to get covered up.  If you are scouting in the mid to late summer, here's what you are looking for (with binoculars).


WHERE THEY'RE FOUND



Persimmons are found in the entire southeastern region of the U.S., as far West as Eastern Texas and Oklahoma and as far north as central Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Persimmons grow in a variety of habitats, but they are often found in densely

vegetated moist lowlands, on the sides or ridges, along the edges of fields, and in fencerows. They tend to grow in clusters with trees of the same sex.



BARK

Persimmons are easily identified by their bark. They are usually the darkest tree in the woods. When you are looking for them, scan ahead with binoculars, looking for dark, almost black trunks. When you see a dark trunk, look for the distinctive blocky-looking bark that is furrowed into a unique pattern of square chunks. Persimmons growing in the woods generally don't have branches near the ground. Trees growing in areas where they have more exposure to light will grow lower branches.




LEAVES

Persimmon leaves are oval-shaped, dark shiny green above and light green below. They are pretty non-descript and aren't all that helpful in identifying the species, except when glassing the edges of fields, where their dark green color combined with the tall slender shape of the tree can be recognized from a distance.





FRUIT
Persimmons are green to light orange before they ripen, becoming dark orange when ripe. Usually, the first frost will cause the fruit to quickly ripen and fall soon after, although some trees will produce ripe fruit much earlier in the year.













FIELD REFERENCES














If you are looking for a handy field guide that you can throw in your pack the next time you are out scouting, I recommend either or both of these books. I use both because often one will have a better photo or illustration than the other and two points of reference always helps. If you don't want to spend the cash for two books, I'd give a slight edge to the Peterson's Guide.

Tree ID - Shingle Oak

Despite years of studying oak trees, this species was a complete mystery to me until this fall. I guess because it doesn't "look" like an oak tree I've overlooked it. Rambuck and I were out scouting in Tennessee and collecting tree pictures when he looked up in a tree with his binoculars and said, "look at all the acorns in that tree." I looked up with my binoculars and declared matter-of-factly, "that's not an oak tree, look at the leaves." This is what we saw:


Well, I was flat out wrong! It is an oak tree called a shingle oak. Interestingly enough, I was in Kentucky a couple weeks later and found several more, all bearing acorns. It's amazing what you see when you know what you are looking for.

WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Shingle oaks grow from about Middle Tennessee up to the southern tip of the Great Lakes in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Western Pennsylvania. They are found in moist soils near water, often growing with post oaks and black oaks.

BARK

The bark is smooth in small trees but becomes rough and deeply furrowed in larger trees. You'll have to forgive the poison ivy on this specimen. It was the only one I had available to photograph.








LEAVES

Identification of this tree based on the leaves is pretty easy. They are 3" - 6" long and shaped like a spear tip. They are shiny green on top with a yellow mid-vein.

ACORNS

The nuts that are pictured here are still immature. The acorn shell will grow out further from the cap in a fully-developed specimen, but you can get the sense of how small they are.

FIELD REFERENCES














If you are looking for a handy field guide that you can throw in your pack the next time you are out scouting, I recommend either or both of these books. I use both because often one will have a better photo or illustration than the other and two points of reference always helps. If you don't want to spend the cash for two books, I'd give a slight edge to the Peterson's Guide.


Next post: the Persimmon.

Tree ID - Chinkapin Oak

Chinkapin oaks are members of the white oak family. Their acorns are highly sought after by deer, perhaps second in preference only to white oak.



WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Chinkapin oaks are found in most of the Eastern United States, typically growing in well-drained rocky upland areas associated with limestone outcroppings, hence their common name Rock Oak.

BARK

The bark is light gray and similar in texture to white oak bark at the base of the tree. Unlike the white oak, whose bark becomes scaly toward the top of the tree, the chinkapin's bark stays uniformly "flaky" from bottom to top.




LEAVES

Leaves are football shaped, similar to a chestnut oak, but smaller. The ridges around the edge of the leaf end in small pointed teeth.




ACORNS


Chinkapin oak acorns are similar to white oak acorns but are usually smaller. The caps are warty looking and the nuts are typically yellow, brown, or black when mature. The immature acorns pictured above will grow longer and more pointed toward the tip as they mature.

FIELD REFERENCES














If you are looking for a handy field guide that you can throw in your pack the next time you are out scouting, I recommend either or both of these books. I use both because often one will have a better photo or illustration than the other and two points of reference always helps. If you don't want to spend the cash for two books, I'd give a slight edge to the Peterson's Guide.


Next post: the Shingle Oak

Tree ID - Blackjack Oak

Blackjack oaks are members of the red oak family. During 2007 preseason scouting, I've found numerous trees with good acorn production.


WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Blackjack oaks are found in central Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri and east to the Atlantic Ocean. They grow in upland areas with dry sandy soil, often among other oaks and pines.

BARK

Dark, rough, deeply furrowed into squarish blocks.






LEAVES

Narrow at base, broadening toward the tip.






ACORNS

5/8 to 3/4 inches long with brown loosely overlapping scales.

FIELD REFERENCES














If you are looking for a handy field guide that you can throw in your pack the next time you are out scouting, I recommend either or both of these books. I use both because often one will have a better photo or illustration than the other and two points of reference always helps. If you don't want to spend the cash for two books, I'd give a slight edge to the Peterson's Guide.


Next post: the Chinkapin Oak.

Tree ID - Pin Oak

If you've read through earlier posts, you already know that pin oak acorns are a deer favorite. Pin oaks are members of the red oak family, which means that their acorns mature in the second year after flower pollination. In 2007, that means that pin oaks and their related red oak cousins will make up the majority of the acorn crop since the nuts we are seeing this year were mature enough to survive our late frost.





WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Pin oaks are found primarily in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, New Jersey, and parts of North Carolina. They grow primarily in moist, poorly drained soils in lowland areas.

BARK

Pin oak bark is medium gray and relatively smooth. Although the leaves resemble red oak leaves, the bark is distinguishable because it lacks the striped pattern of the northern red oak.








LEAVES

Leaves are smallish, compared to other trees in the red oak family, generally 3" - 5" long. They have deep sinuses or notches that reach almost to the vein running down the center of the leaf. They also have tufts of hairs on the under sides at the vein junctions (where the arrow is pointing).




ACORNS

Acorns are small (about 1/2" in diameter) and nearly round with a shallow cap that encloses just the top portion of the acorn.

FIELD REFERENCES














If you are looking for a handy field guide that you can throw in your pack the next time you are out scouting, I recommend either or both of these books. I use both because often one will have a better photo or illustration than the other and two points of reference always helps. If you don't want to spend the cash for two books, I'd give a slight edge to the Peterson's Guide.


Next post: the Blackjack Oak.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Tree ID - Chestnut Oak

The chestnut oak is a member of the white oak family. As mentioned in an earlier post, chestnut oak acorns are not particularly favored by deer due to their high tannin content which makes the acorns quite bitter. Despite their bitterness, deer will feed heavily on the chestnut oak during the early season, before more palletable species begin to mature. In middle Tennessee, there is usually about a one to two week window at the beginning of bow season (which starts the last Saturday in September) when chestnut oaks are the hot ticket. After that, the white oaks normally start to drop nuts and the deer move on to better tasting fare.

September 2008 Update: The chestnut oaks in middle Tennessee have a good mast crop this year. As a matter of fact, I will be hunting a cluster of chestnut oaks on opening morning this weekend. Despite there being white oak acorns on the ground everywhere, the deer are feeding hard on the chestnut oaks and ignoring the white oaks. My theory is that the white oak acorns were knocked down by several recent storms before they matured. They are not dropping nuts like they will in a couple weeks. The chestnut oaks, on the other hand, are actively dropping mature nuts which, for whatever reason, are more appealing to the deer. I noticed that the chestnut oak acorns are very firm. The white oak's that are on the ground are kind of rubbery. Maybe that affects the taste or the nutritional value.



WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Chestnut oaks grow primarily on south and west-facing ridges with dry, sandy-to-rocky, shallow soils. They have limited competition from other tree species that can't tolerate the poor soils, so they usually grow in relatively pure stands with very little ground vegetation in the area.



BARK/SHAPE
The bark of the chestnut oak is easily distinguished by its light gray color and very deep ridges which can be seen with binoculars from hundreds of yards away. Often, trees will have multiple trunks.






LEAVES

The leaves of the chestnut oak are football-shaped with rounded teeth along the edges.









ACORNS

Acorns are long with deep bowl-shaped cups that usually do not remain attached to the nuts once they fall to the ground. They typically are the first oak species to ripen in the area of middle Tennessee where I hunt. When ripe, the acorns are yellow and brown as seen above. They are similar in shape to their cousins the white oak, but they are much larger. Chestnut oaks are members of the white oak family, so their acorns mature in a single growing year. Although they are capable of producing a new crop of acorns each year, chestnut oaks usually produce a heavy crop every 4 -5 years. They generally produce fewer acorns than other oaks of a given size, most likely due to the poor nutrient content of the soils in which they grow.

FIELD REFERENCES














If you are looking for a handy field guide that you can throw in your pack the next time you are out scouting, I recommend either or both of these books. I use both because often one will have a better photo or illustration than the other and two points of reference always helps. If you don't want to spend the cash for two books, I'd give a slight edge to the Peterson's Guide.


Next post: the pin oak.








Thursday, September 6, 2007

Tree ID - Southern Red Oak

In my 2007 preseason scouting, I have found numerous Southern Red Oaks with good acorn crops.




WHERE THEY'RE FOUND
Southern Red Oaks are found in the Southeastern U.S. from the Florida Panhandle to Northern Kentucky.

BARK

Southern Red Oaks are not easy to distinguish by their bark, as it is very similar to several other oak species.




LEAVES

The distinctive three-lobed leaves of the Southern Red Oak are the best means of identifying this tree. The middle lobe generally has several pointed "teeth". The rounded base end (toward the stem) is a distinguishing characteristic.


ACORNS

The acorns of the Southern Red Oak are round-ish often with longitudinal stripes that run from base to tip. The cap encloses about 1/3 of the nut and ends in a broad stalk-like base.

FIELD REFERENCES














If you are looking for a handy field guide that you can throw in your pack the next time you are out scouting, I recommend either or both of these books. I use both because often one will have a better photo or illustration than the other and two points of reference always helps. If you don't want to spend the cash for two books, I'd give a slight edge to the Peterson's Guide.


Next, we'll take a look at the chestnut oak.

Tree ID - Eastern White Oak

The Eastern White Oak, or white oak, is hands down my favorite tree to hunt. Deer would rather eat white oak acorns than anything else I know of. I've had some great experiences hunting white oaks, including a hunt that I wrote about last week.

As I write this in September of 2007, the prospect for hunting white oaks looks pretty bleak in the southeast. The late frost and hot dry summer have pretty much wiped out this year's white oak acorn crop. I've seen one tree with acorns and heard about a couple others, but they are few and far between. If you are fortunate enough to hunt in an area that does have white oak acorns this year, consider yourself very lucky. Please leave a comment below about where you hunt (not specifics, obviously, but county and state would be very interesting)

2008 Update: In the area of Tennessee where I am hunting this year, the white oaks have produced a bumper crop of acorns! Things are looking good.

In the previous article, I wrote that the Northern Red Oak is the grand daddy of the red oak family. The Eastern White Oak fills the same role in the white oak family. It grows in virtually all regions of the Eastern U.S. As with the red oak, it reaches a large size and tends to overshadow other trees of similar age.


WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

White oaks are found on the tops and sides of ridges, similar to red oaks, but they also are commonly found in the bottoms of hollows. White oaks can grow in just about any type of soil except extremely dry shallow soils on ridges and wet bottomlands. Acorn production seems to be directly related to the amount of moisture available, with trees located in hollows and on the north-facing sides of ridges (where the ground does not get baked by the mid-day summer sun) generally being more productive.

BARK/SHAPE

The bark of the white oak is unique and easily recognizable. Near the base of the tree the bark forms small flakes in a relatively tight pattern.










Further up the trunk, at about the level where significant limbs begin to form, the bark changes into large flakes or sheets.

Two features in the second picture are characteristic of white oaks. Often the trunk will fork into two or more large sections. It is also common for some of the large limbs to grow almost horizontally, like the one on the left side of the right-hand fork in this photo.

LEAVES

White oak leaves are dull green above and whitish green below. They have 5 - 9 rounded lobes that are widest beyond the middle of the leaf and taper back toward the stem.






ACORNS

The acorns are long with shallow warty-looking caps. The green ones pictured here are immature. The brown ones are ripe. White oak acorns mature in one growing season, so the number of acorns produced each fall will be impacted by growing conditions in the spring of that year. Even under ideal conditions, a given tree will not produce acorns every year. Excellent crops are produced, on average, about every four to ten years. Individual trees will vary in their acorn output, with some trees consistently producing nuts and others never producing. Generally, trees on wetter north and east-facing slopes are more likely to have high acorn production than trees growing on drier south and west-facing slopes.

FIELD REFERENCES














If you are looking for a handy field guide that you can throw in your pack the next time you are out scouting, I recommend either or both of these books. I use both because often one will have a better photo or illustration than the other and two points of reference always helps. If you don't want to spend the cash for two books, I'd give a slight edge to the Peterson's Guide.

Next, we will look at the Southern Red Oak.

Tree ID - Northern Red Oak

If you've been reading my prior articles, you know that oaks are divided into two families, the white oak family and the red oak family. If that is news to you, you may want to go back and read this article.

In this, the first Tree ID article, we are going to talk about the grand daddy of the red oak family, the Northern Red Oak, or simply red oak as it is commonly called. I chose to start the Tree ID series with the red oak for a couple reasons. First, it is a very common tree in most parts of the whitetail's range. Second, it is a large tree that can produce large quantities of acorns in a good year. Third, I just came back from a quick morning scouting trip with Ted, during which we found our first dominant tree of the season (notice the mulched-up ground, the acorn pieces, and the deer droppings in the photo - click on it to see more detail). Unfortunately, bow season doesn't open in Tennessee for another two weeks, so it may play out before we get a chance to hunt it. Anyway, in honor of that first dominant tree of 2007, here we go with the Tree ID series.

WHERE THEY'RE FOUND

Red oaks are found in the majority of the Eastern United States. They prefer well-drained upland soils and are commonly found on the tops and sides of ridges and along openings like fields and roadways where they have good access to sunlight. Red oaks grow rapidly and are are capable of reaching a very large size. They will usually overshadow other tree species of similar age, thus gaining access to the sunlight that is critical for acorn production.


BARK

The easiest way to identify a red oak tree is by its bark. In trees larger than a foot or so in diameter, the bark will appear to have vertical stripes of smooth, shiny, silver-ish bark alternating with rough dark "cracks" that develop as the tree grows. Once you become accustomed to looking for the unique bark pattern, you will be able to spot it with ease, even from far away.



LEAVES

Leaves are dull green above and dull light green underneath. They have 7 - 11 lobes with several sharp-tipped points on each lobe. The "hollows" between the lobes generally do not extend past half way to the vein that runs down the center of the leaf.

ACORNS

Red oak acorns can vary in size from about a half inch to over an inch in length. They are recognizable by their flat caps and broad proportions.

FIELD REFERENCES














If you are looking for a handy field guide that you can throw in your pack the next time you are out scouting, I recommend either or both of these books. I use both because often one will have a better photo or illustration than the other and two points of reference always helps. If you don't want to spend the cash for two books, I'd give a slight edge to the Peterson's Guide.


Next Tree ID: the Eastern White Oak.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The Dominant Tree - Part 3 Size Does Matter

This is the third article in our discussion of dominant trees. If you missed the first two articles click here for the definition of a dominant tree and here to learn how to identify one.

You should also take a look at this discussion of the differences between the two main families of oak trees. The focus of that article was on the quality of the acorns produced by the various species of oaks.

In this article we are going to talk about factors that influence the quantity of acorns produced in an area or by an individual tree. Although deer will tend to seek out the most nutritious, best tasting foods, there must be a sufficient quantity of the food available in order for the deer to develop a pattern of feeding on a specific tree - which is where we want to hunt.

Many external factors can reduce the number of acorns produced in a given year. Weather plays a big role. A late spring freeze like we experienced in 2007 can kill the oak flowers that normally develop into acorns. A dry summer can cause the tree to conserve resources by limiting the number of acorns that develop to maturity. Interestingly, too much rain can even be a problem. If heavy rain occurs in the spring when the flowers are blooming, it can wash away the pollen needed for fertilization.



Several types of insects, particularly weevils, lay their eggs in the developing acorns. After the eggs hatch the insect larvae remain in the acorn feeding on the nutritious insides. Deer will not eat acorns that are infested with insect larvae. You can break the acorns open (I usually bite them) to determine whether they have been invaded by insects. Compare the good acorns pictured above with the infested ones. You can click on the picture to get a closer look.

Generally, an acorn producing tree will not produce large quantities of acorns every year. Disregarding the influences of weather and insects, white oaks tend to produce large numbers of acorns every three years, red oaks every four years. Interestingly, when one white oak in an area has a good year, the other acorn producing white oaks in the are tend to do well too. This is not the case with red oaks.

Notice I said acorn producing trees. The majority of oak trees in a population do not produce acorns at all. In a study conducted in Pennsylvania, only about 30% of large healthy white oak trees produced acorns, even in a good acorn year. Of that 30%, an even smaller fraction produced a "good" crop.

So as deer hunters, how are we going to locate those acorn producing trees to determine whether they are a dominant tree. If you hunt an area year after year, you will be able to pattern the particular trees that tend to produce acorns with regularity. If you are searching for dominant trees in an unfamiliar hunting area, there are a couple rules of thumb you can remember to help locate productive trees. Keep them in mind, and use them to help narrow down your search.


1. Size is important. Take a look at this graph which shows the average number of acorns produced per tree relative to the diameter (DBH stands for Diameter at Breast Height) of the tree. Click on the graph for a larger version. As you can see, larger trees produce more nuts (up to a point with most species). As an example, look at the line for white oaks. On average a 26 inch diameter tree will produce almost twice as many acorns as a tree that is only 8 inches smaller!

  • Scouting Rule of Thumb #1: Look for the largest diameter trees
2. Trees that have access to sunlight will produce more acorns than those that are shaded by larger trees. The best producing trees are generally ones that have a majority of their limbs open to the sun on all sides.

  • Scouting Rule of Thumb #2: Look for trees that are taller than the surrounding canopy.

3. Trees need access to nutrients, including water, in order to produce acorns. Trees that acquire the necessary nutrients generally have dark green leaves. Trees that do not are usually yellowish-looking.

  • Scouting Rule of Thumb #3: Look for trees that are dark green in color.
Of course these rules of thumb assume you are able to identify an oak tree from the hundreds of other trees in the woods. If you haven't yet learned to distinguish the various oak species, or if you just need a refresher, start here.