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Deer, grouse, pheasants, turkeys prompting hunters, viewers
Locked bucks
These two bucks locked antlers, one died, a field warden broke one of the dead bucks antlers with a rifle shot and the other buck eventually left after fighting more with the dead deer.
Jerry Davis, Columnist
Published: Oct 23, 2023, 9:18 PM

Game registration figures tell tales of successes in forests, fields, and from stands.

As of last week archers and crossbowers had registered 20,001 deer, with the youth hunt bringing in another 7,894 deer, of which 3,929 were antlered.

Crossbowers registered 11,579 deer, 6,466 being antlerless while archers registered 8,422 deer including 5,381 bucks.

The number of vehicle-killed deer on roads is increasing; a warning drivers to be cautious. If the worst thing does happen, that animal can be claimed by the driver or someone next in line with a customer ID number to complete the notification and registration process.

Deer moving, making scraps, and rubbing trees continue to mount with scrap lines being visited daily. While this is an exciting time for hunters and photographers, it can be a dangerous time for drivers.

Practice tree stand safety and monitor your own health, especially if a deer is being pulled toward a hunter’s vehicle to be loaded. Not everyone is able to engage in this strenuous activity. If you feel some body reactions that do not seem right, call someone for assistance.

Grouse hunter
A ruffed grouse hunter holds a bird he shot out of reach from his two golden retrievers after one of the dogs brought the bird to him.
Make sure the tree used for a stand is sturdy. Be extra careful in a wood on a windy day, which often brings limbs crashing to earth.

“Timely harvesting soybeans and corn will be helpful to deer hunters by reducing the areas where deer can find cover, and are difficult and dangerous to hunt,” said Travis Anderson, wildlife biologist in Iowa and Lafayette counties. Photographers and viewers, too, will appreciate having deer feeding in harvested fields at dusk.

Turkey hunters have registered 1,526 birds so far this fall season, which closes November 17 in Zone 6 and January 7, 2024 in zones 1 thru 5.

The population appears to have increased in many areas. Any turkey is a legal bird during the fall season. Birds cannot be taken with a rifle, but archery equipment is legal and a license, stamp and authorization are necessary.

Blaze orange clothing rules apply to most hunters during any gun deer season such as the four day, antlerless season, Holiday hunt, and others. In other words, pheasant hunters hunting during the nine-day, gun deer season must be wearing blaze orange caps and jackets.

Pheasants were stocked pre-season on all of the properties prior to the opening weekend, in spite of rainy weather that hampers transporting crated birds. Releases are on schedule for biweekly stocking for the next two weeks on the majority of the properties.

Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center in Portage said hunters generally waited out the rain and returned to hunt after weather cleared opening weekend.

Almost all the club-raised birds have been released according to plans with conservation groups.

“If there are future rain delays in stocking that property stocking will be pushed back to when we are just stocking once a week and double those stockings,” Kelly Maguire, manager at the Poynette Game Farm, said.

The recently introduced Holiday release program will continue for pre-Christmas stocking on about 25 properties.

Don Martin, at Martin’s in Monroe said pheasant hunters are taking advantage of pheasant hunting in the Green County area to be able to use their bird dogs.

Wayne Whitemarsh, an outdoorsman in Sauk City, said bird hunters are active in his area, too.

A Sauk City hickory nut sage was able to find five, five-gallon pails of nuts to keep him busy throughout the winter. Most pickers are finding few, if any.

Williams advises hunters to better prepare for future hunts whenever possible by getting supplies and ammunition ahead of the day before. “I expect we may see a shortage of some loads, maybe most, as we move deeper into the seasons. Purchase now if financially possible,” he said.

Ruffed grouse hunters were surprised when visiting northern Wisconsin for woodcock and grouse hunting. Resident and non-resident hunters continue to flock to this destination location. Grouse are weather-fidgety birds moving deeper into cover on cloudy days and feeding more on trails and edges on sunny days.

Populations in most areas are similar to last year, but the weather seems to shift the numbers seemingly higher or lower, confusing dogs and hunters. Most hunters continue to say the experience of seeing birds, an exquisite fall forest, and eating a fine shrimp or burger meal means more than bagging a limit of five grouse. Autumn colors are where you find them. Fall fungi, hawthorn fruits, ample acorns, wolf tracks in the sand, ravens calling, and white aspen and birch boles all help say fall in the north and help make Wisconsin, Wisconsin.
Prescribed burns (maintain), improve (wildlife, recreation) habitats
Prairie Fires
While appearing completely destructive, early prairie fires remove above ground plant material and do not kill root systems of perennial plants.
Jerry Davis, Columnist
Published: Apr 17, 2025, 10:44 AM

Prairie and savanna prescribed fires can be good trouble if they are carefully timed and controlled.  Their purpose is to help keep prairies as grasslands and prevent or at least slow succession toward more forested habitats.

Prairie is a word used for these grasslands, coming from the French word meaning meadow.  Half the upland prairie plants are usually grasses and the other half are forbs, non-grass herbs.  Deer and turkeys use these areas, pheasants love them particularly if there are crops nearby.  Shed antlers and a few destroyed bird nests attest to the use by these animals after burns. 

Aldo Leopold, in his 1949 A Sand County Almanac wrote of compass plants tickling the bellies of buffalos as they fed in grasslands.  These days it is a much smaller ungulate, the white-tailed deer, using these prairies in the Midwest.

In general, spring prairie fires get rid of dead stems and leaves of prairie plants. Some invasive species and most trees and shrubs including raspberry and blackberry brambles are set back or killed.

In springtime, all the living parts of prairie grasses and forbs are underground and protected from fire’s quick flame heat.  A bur oak’s thick, corky bark protects the tree’s stems so once this oak begins growing it usually survives a spring fire.

Safety, planning, and permits are necessary considerations before jumping into prescribed burns.  Neighbors accumulate around prairie burns; they are eager to lend a hand, a leaf blower, and a watchful eye.  In addition to controlled excitement and controlled danger, prairie fires provide a combination of sights, sounds, intense heat, flame cones and colors and an immediate warming found nowhere else in April.  It’s like a July noon when we get close.  But don’t wait too long on the calendar or new shoots will be harmed, more nesting will be disrupted and prairie plants will be harmed.  Late fall burns may be an option then.

Numerous mounds and depressions show in the terrain as soon as the flames become ash, and do animal skeletons and white spent deer antlers.  Turkeys flock to the blackened landscape, even wood ducks don’t seem to mind the black ash, which remains for but a few days before green dominates all.

Young turkey hunters already had their special season, some on prairies, and now the first turkey season, Period A, has begun.  This period is followed by five additional periods, all Wednesday through Tuesday.

Bonus permits, aka authorizations, remain to be purchased for two of the last hunting periods, so for more recreation and excitement buy into the extra hunting opportunities regardless of whether or not a bird is in the freezer or has been consumed.

Checking for possible morel mushroom locations is now prime.  Look for dead elm trees, old apple orchards and a number of other locations.  Scarlet cup mushrooms are a bright clue that morels will soon appear.  False morels appearing are another clue.

After three poor morel hunting years, set your expectations accordingly, but morels often surprise or disappoint gatherers. 

In the end it is often a dead elm tree, but with some bark hanging being the best bet.  Not all morels appear at the same time so keep checking tried and past productive locations.

With rain and warmth, all sorts of “blooming birthdays” are about to occur.  Garden, lawn, field, and forest have a lot in store.  Asparagus shoots have been reported.  Forsythia is blooming; pasque flowers are, too.  Sometimes a green compass plant shoot is as exciting to see as a new bloom or cone.  

Check for those tiny tree flowers if you nose hasn’t already made you aware of the pollen these wind-pollinated plants are releasing.

One experience could be finding an evergreen red cedar tree that is releasing pollen grains in pulses early in the morning when the temperature reaches a critical point and the pollen cones open and clouds of pollen takes to the breezes.  Some will land on the seed cones on a different individual red cedar tree beginning the development of a bright blue seed cone that smells of gin.

Take note of what is occurring such as wild gooseberries blooming and attracting bumblebees just when the first morels begin to show. It’s all about timing, seeing one event suggesting and reminding of another.