a couple of opening day observations and a question

JJ Grandits · #1 11/18/12, 08:39 AM

Gun season for deer opened in my part of New York yesterday. Absolutely beautiful day! Having spent over 40 years working outdoors and the last two in a windowless factory I needed a day in the woods real bad. It was overwhelming. I spent half the day looking for deer and the other half thanking God. Called in a nice eight pointer real close (30 yards) but decided that it was not a good shot so held off. He caught me in the wind and scooted by down the escarpment. such is life. Saw a few Does but they were moving and too far off. Anyways, here is an observation. I was at my spot in the woods about 45 minutes before dawn. Things were very quiet and just about 15 minutes passed shooting time I have six nice Gobblers walk right up to me. I was if full view of them and wearing a blaze orange jacket. The closest of them was only 40-50 ft. away. They were staring right at me but I was totally mointionless. They eventually walked away. This has happened to me several times. I always wear orange as do my kids. One year my daughter had about 30 turkeys surrounding her like barnyard chickens. They don't seem to be as wary as I hear. Next observation. The woods I hunt have tons of Beech, Oak, Hickory, an abandoned Apple orchard and surrounding fields planted in corn or soybean every year. Those woods are loaded with squirrel. It was not unusual to have a half dozen in your field of view. Last year the squirrel population seemed to be down. Yesterday, I spent the entire day, dawn to dusk in the woods and did not see one squirrel. Heard a couple baking down in the lower woods but that was it. Where did all the squirrels go? We do have foxes, coyotes, feral cats, hawks and owls, but we always have and the population was more then robust. The last couple of winters have been mild on top of it. Down it the village squirrels are all over like plant lice. I also did not see any chipmunks. I find this very strange. The mast crop seems to be very light this year but the area is still quiet a supermarket for wildlife. Anyone have any ideas?

TnTnTn · #2 11/18/12, 09:51 AM

Squirrel populations are very volatile from year to year in my experience. It seems to be related to mast production. Often if there aren't many squirrels in sq season by deer season there are a lot more if the mast is abundant. That is the case around my place this year. Conversely if there are lots of squirrels early on by deer season their numbers are much reduced. That has been my observation over many years. Predators-people, hawks, wildcats, foxes, and coyotes have to eat near daily so they are a constant. As far the turkeys-motionless is the key. If you move you are busted and they are gone. They are probably near dumb as a rock but will not tolerate movement from a suspicious object. Congrats on getting into the woods- you needed that. TTT

JJ Grandits · #3 11/19/12, 02:15 AM

I agree about the amount of mast available to a point. For the 27 years I've been living here it's been squirrel heaven for 25. They started to drop last year and nose dived this year. The population in the village has not dropped. Possibly a combination of low mast production and increased predation? The rabbit population out here has always been miserable because of it and I haven't flown a Grouse in 10 years, even though there is good cover. Nothing is random. Im just going to have to spend more time out there studying the situation. Darn it.

Badger · #4 11/19/12, 05:54 PM

I spend alot of days in the woods each year - Dawn to dusk - some days there are hundreds of squirrels, some days very few. Some days they are chasing each other all over the place and some days they just come out quietly and sit on a limb for a while then go back to bed. Same woods. Some days lots of deer - some days no deer -

Even a day with no game at all is better than not being out there.