What the heck are they eating?
Massachusetts
So, I mostly hunt in thickets near bedding. I know that there aren’t any acorns in the thicket, but the deer do like to chomp sugar maple saplings and sugar maple leaves, the briar, fiddle heads, etc.
I know they avoid the ferns, let the swamp grass alone, and don’t seem to touch the...I don’t know what it’s called but it’s crotch high and it’s everywhere. It looks like wild blueberry but it isn’t.
Late in the season they hit people’s yards, fields, and go hard after the grasses.
My question is, in the hardwood forests, without the acorn crop, what the heck are they eating?!
All the stuff you noted, some mushrooms, and lots of woody browse. Sometimes a "hot" spot is the crown of a newly fallen tree. If that ice storm you guys to the east had last winter left some trees down, but partly alive, the tops of those should be money, if not now, in a month or two.
any deer that moves a lot in the night doesnt have to go far around me for apples or corn. keep in mind wher your local farms are. I am with ya on the acorns though z9 was a boom year last year and not so much this year. i have been seeing a ton of walnuts but theyve been down for a while now.
They eat mushrooms?! That actually answers another question.
Thanks Will. Thank you again for the Muzzy! I picked some up and they fly great!
I plan on killing a deer with the one you sent me then passing it on to someone else on the forums. Traveling broadhead sort of thing.
I was out all day yesterday.. Saw nothing. Drove by the local farm and two fat deer could be seen feeding. I'm sure there were more, it was dark. I was kicking myself because I have a spot in the woods not far from this food plot. I should have gone there. Going to try to get there Thursday afternoon.
My afternoon spot was in the middle of some big oaks. I could not find an acorn if my life depended on it.
This is my issue with the hardwoods this year. I have seen nothing and my best spots are in thickets. I am gunning for an early doe, but don’t want to fart up the thickets.
Ugh...freaking too much rain/ gypsy moths.
you guys got to remember that acorns are just 'deer dessert'. its not their staple everyday meal. as Will said 'woody browse' is a big one. grasses....tons of other plants...I know one of the fields near were I hunt is loaded with hairy vetch which is a legume that they love.
if you want to know what they're eating, the answer's simple, kill one and cut open its stomach. :)
They are eating woodland stew. I did as hickstick said and that's what's in there.
They ate my rhubarb plants last week! The leaves are supposed to be toxic... looks like they didn't read the warning label...
I thought I could grow rhubarb outside the fence, since it is supposed to be deer resistance... HA!
that's interesting, they've never touched my rhubarb.
My Hosta got munched this year. The leaves of two plants and all the flowers of several. All but two sad little tops. But that's my local bait fish so she gets to do as she must. We have an arrangement set for her Boyfriend. Mr. Von- Bonehead
I wonder if they eat poison ivy? Goats love it, so it makes one wonder... Hosta's too - if there are homes near by - for desert after the rhubarb :)
That said, they will target some odd stuff.
I was amazed hunting an overgrown farm about 10-12 years ago that they LOVED to eat bittersweet berries. That was the biggest draw - once they had a good frost or two on them. Ditto wintergreen berries.
If you have a lot of open, but acornless woods. consult the topo's and aerials, look for edges, and old cut's. There is always more new growth in those and it's likely a good spot to check given the amount of browse.
Peter, I snuck up to about 50yds from two does in your town yesterday afternoon on a still hunt/scout. Very fun, just couldnt get that last 15~yds... If that oaky spot is the one we both hunt (you more than me at this point), look at an aerial, they are likely shifted and are hitting the big fields NE of there... Shift your approach that way a bit some afternoon in there and I bet you have some action.
yup will..there are a ton of fruits that deer will pound after a couple good freezes to concentrate the sugars. theres a green apple tree in my honey hole that will not touch at all until january after a really hard hard freeze.
wow, Will...learn something new from you everyday. :) I just figured out that the 'wintergreen' you mentioned was a plant I knew as 'teaberry'. it grows all over the powerlines in one of my zone 8 spots and the deer do eat it during shotgun/muzzleloader.
That's it Hick. They love it - generally late season after things get cold. Some years they dig through all kinds of snow for it!
I google image tea berry and they look pretty low to the ground? Is this what you guys are seeing? I would sit above a couple 5 or 6 feet high. That look very similar. They would hit it during shot gun season no earlier in z9. Gotta be the sAme Totally camouflage themselves in it and feed for awhile. Next time you guys pass thru some Throw is a pic.
wintergreen berries are great. its the same taste as the old gum. trident?
Steve, yeah, it hugs the ground, often in hemlock or pine areas, sometimes elsewhere. sturdy, waxy sort of oval leaves with round red berries - creeper on the ground, it's not up at all.
Bigsevig - not sure the brand, but yes, whenever you hear wintergreen flavor that's what they are talking about.
