Food sources?

[Jimmy wallhanger]

Im new to hunting, I have access to a 1500 acre public land tract that is about 50% thick swamp. I love it. I have found a giant marsh which is about 100 acres in size.

I can find bedding but I honestly dont know what the to look for with respect to food sources. If it helps im located in southern ontario.


Great website, and thank you in advance for any replies.



I will be buying the marsh buck dvd tomorrow.

[Singing Bridge]

I can find bedding but I honestly dont know what the to look for with respect to food sources. If it helps im located in southern ontario.

I suggest creating a "habitat map." Make this map by drawing on an aerial photo or topo map, or make the map by hand...

outline your marsh, and draw in the various types of habitat surrounding it, in particular food sources... white cedar, mountain maple, blueberry bogs, red-osier dogwood (redbrush), oak trees, lichen areas, white pine.... etc.

Big woods bucks eat a wide variety of forbes and browse to make their diet complete. Identify food sources closest to buck bedding to put yourself in the game for bed-to-food travel before darkness sets in on an evening hunt... or reverse the pattern for morning hunting.

[dan]

In big woods / swamp and no ag. I would have a hard time "guessing" food sources. I generally need to walk around occasionally and look for browsing evidence, and then set up at nearby bedding. Sometimes I don't even know what the type of plant there eating is, I just locate it and go from there, and it changes often.

[Singing Bridge]

The habitat map I suggest would necessitate good scouting.

[ Post made via Android ]

[cbay]

In big woods / swamp and no ag. I would have a hard time "guessing" food sources. I generally need to walk around occasionally and look for browsing evidence, and then set up at nearby bedding. Sometimes I don't even know what the type of plant there eating is, I just locate it and go from there, and it changes often.

Same here. Around the house there is no agriculture but timber and brush. The deer seem to prefer young plants and later in the summer many plants that haven't been eaten will become mature or near the end of their life cycle and release sugars in the plants and the deer start devouring them. Stuff that looks like they never touch all of a sudden get wiped out.
The open hardwoods around here have no benefit until acorns fall and until then are unproductive other than travel routes or bedding based on terrain features. At least it helps narrow down where to look. Overgrown fields on public supports a lot of deer around here.

[Stanley]

Keep in mind deer will eat almost anything. You need to clear your mind of what you think they should eat and see what they are actually eating. The preferred food source varies so much from area to area. I think Dan hit it on the head, look for browsing to see what the deer are eating.

Finding the bedding area is a great start. Swamps are areas of limited food sources. So it should be easy to see/find what they are after. When you get into ag country where there are thousands of acres of food sources, it can also be tough to find a current food source. You just must look and find them.

[BassBoysLLP]

I can find bedding but I honestly dont know what the to look for with respect to food sources. If it helps im located in southern ontario.

I suggest creating a "habitat map." Make this map by drawing on an aerial photo or topo map, or make the map by hand...

outline your marsh, and draw in the various types of habitat surrounding it, in particular food sources... white cedar, mountain maple, blueberry bogs, red-osier dogwood (redbrush), oak trees, lichen areas, white pine.... etc.

Big woods bucks eat a wide variety of forbes and browse to make their diet complete. Identify food sources closest to buck bedding to put yourself in the game for bed-to-food travel before darkness sets in on an evening hunt... or reverse the pattern for morning hunting.

Agreed. A basic habitat map will help you out a lot. Deer habitat can be relatively concentrated in Ontario, especially in the cold weather months when food sources become scarce. The most consistent food sources are clear cuts and burned areas. The Ministry can be helpful in identifying areas that have seen a forest fire in the last 10 years. During your scouting also take note of old man beard stands. These areas can be dynamite in the late fall.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Singing Bridge]

I can find bedding but I honestly dont know what the to look for with respect to food sources. If it helps im located in southern ontario.

I suggest creating a "habitat map." Make this map by drawing on an aerial photo or topo map, or make the map by hand...

outline your marsh, and draw in the various types of habitat surrounding it, in particular food sources... white cedar, mountain maple, blueberry bogs, red-osier dogwood (redbrush), oak trees, lichen areas, white pine.... etc.

Big woods bucks eat a wide variety of forbes and browse to make their diet complete. Identify food sources closest to buck bedding to put yourself in the game for bed-to-food travel before darkness sets in on an evening hunt... or reverse the pattern for morning hunting.

Agreed. A basic habitat map will help you out a lot. Deer habitat can be relatively concentrated in Ontario, especially in the cold weather months when food sources become scarce. The most consistent food sources are clear cuts and burned areas. The Ministry can be helpful in identifying areas that have seen a forest fire in the last 10 years. During your scouting also take note of old man beard stands. These areas can be dynamite in the late fall.

[ Post made via Android ]

Right on, clearcuts and burns are major food sources. If you have a specific area you are going to hunt without nearby clearcuts or burn areas, identifying primary and secondary types of preferred browse will go a long ways in helping you find where the bucks will travel from bedding. As an example, deer really don't like to eat white cedar until they have to... but in mid-November I already find it routinely in their stomachs. If you knock a cedar down on a transition line close to bedding (private) watch the nearby bedded bucks flock to it.

[Stanley]

I can find bedding but I honestly dont know what the to look for with respect to food sources. If it helps im located in southern ontario.

I suggest creating a "habitat map." Make this map by drawing on an aerial photo or topo map, or make the map by hand...

outline your marsh, and draw in the various types of habitat surrounding it, in particular food sources... white cedar, mountain maple, blueberry bogs, red-osier dogwood (redbrush), oak trees, lichen areas, white pine.... etc.

Big woods bucks eat a wide variety of forbes and browse to make their diet complete. Identify food sources closest to buck bedding to put yourself in the game for bed-to-food travel before darkness sets in on an evening hunt... or reverse the pattern for morning hunting.

Agreed. A basic habitat map will help you out a lot. Deer habitat can be relatively concentrated in Ontario, especially in the cold weather months when food sources become scarce. The most consistent food sources are clear cuts and burned areas. The Ministry can be helpful in identifying areas that have seen a forest fire in the last 10 years. During your scouting also take note of old man beard stands. These areas can be dynamite in the late fall.

[ Post made via Android ]

Right on, clearcuts and burns are major food sources. If you have a specific area you are going to hunt without nearby clearcuts or burn areas, identifying primary and secondary types of preferred browse will go a long ways in helping you find where the bucks will travel from bedding. As an example, deer really don't like to eat white cedar until they have to... but in mid-November I already find it routinely in their stomachs. If you knock a cedar down on a transition line close to bedding (private) watch the nearby bedded bucks flock to it.

Good post. Do they also eat red cedar? We don't have white cedars in the areas I hunt. I have never seen deer eat on red cedar.

[Jimmy wallhanger]

I have not seen a single oak tree. I see the red brush though. TONS of cedar trees., birch trees. The tract has been clear cut in sections. Almost like rows looking like fingers in some spots. In one section its bordered by a couple private land corn plots. I cant for the life of me figure out how to take a screen shot.

I have the magellan 350H gps which is noce and allows me to mark thing on th eground then upload them to a bigger map. Around the marsh there is a very well worn trail that I assume is used by deer. The marsh has very high grass and I seen at least 6 beds wondering thorugh it.

The above mentioned corn plot has a smaller swamp about 50 acres I would say north of the plot that is on public land, when I scouted it it was hevily marked with tape from other hunters. It is also rather easily accessable. The marsh however is a nightamre to get to which is what I like about it. It is a mile and a half walk on a trail them a mile through THICK woods. I strongly suspect other hunters will take the easy way out an hunt the swamp near the food plots.


If anyone knows how ot tae a screen shot using a macbook help me oit!!! I have a photobucket account to upload

Thanks again.

[Redman232]

Areas with the most variety of vegetation are going to get deer traffic, plain and simple. These areas are typically a clear cut, a transition line or some kind of opening in the forest canopy. From there in season scouting will tell almost everything you need to know, other than the exact location of bedding. For me, heavy browsing evidence and poop on the ground means your either in a staging area or a destination food source. These are the only two places a deer spends a significant amount of time on their feet, in one location. If you know where the bedding is, the trails leaving that area are going to a food source. The food source itself becomes less important.

[seazofcheeze]

Screenshot on a mac is command+shift+4 (hold down all the keys and the cursor will change, then you can release the keys and highlight the area on your screen you want to screenshot)