A few habitat pics I thought you might enjoy

[Native Hunter]

Snapped a few I-phone pics recently I thought some of you might enjoy. I love working on my place and right now is a great time of the year for pictures.

Partridge Pea is tall and blooming nicely now. In the first pic below I see the first clump of Indian Grass this year that has put out a head. In a week or two it should be beautiful as it blooms with the PP.





This was an unusual sight. Jewel Weed and Partridge Pea growing together. Jewel Weed likes moist soil and PP seems to be found more in drier soils.



I kind of liked this early morning scene at the entrance to my place. The fog coming up from the hollow and the mature Switch on the right made me think of fall.



Strongest grass field on the place. Dominated by Big Blue with a little PP still hanging on around the edges.



Oats 6 days after planting. Amazing what two rains and 90 degree weather can do for a food plot. Anyone want to buy some rocks?:D

 

[sandbur]

Your mowed trails through the NWSG reminds me of the mowed trails in my reed canary.

do the deer feed heavily on your jewelweed?

 

[Native Hunter]

Your mowed trails through the NWSG reminds me of the mowed trails in my reed canary.

do the deer feed heavily on your jewelweed?

They really do like the Jewelweed. I have so much of it for the number of deer they can't hurt it, but the browse is very visible. I use a walk behind DR to mow my trails. It does okay through the forbs, but forget about mowing through Big Blue. It chokes out immediately.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

That fog pic is really cool. A few more weeks & those trees will be colored up too. Nice looking plots & property, Native H. What does partridge pea feed - deer, game birds or both?

 

[Native Hunter]

That fog pic is really cool. A few more weeks & those trees will be colored up too. Nice looking plots & property, Native H. What does partridge pea feed - deer, game birds or both?

Thanks Bowsnbucks, Partridge Pea feeds lots of different birds, especially quail and turkey. They eat the little black seed. There have been articles suggesting that it is a medium preference browse for deer, but I can't say for sure about that. I haven't seen it myself, but they could be browsing it where I don't walk in the summer. With only a few deer and lots of PP, you may not always see the browsing.

We have native PP here that gets knee high. This variety that I planted gets high enough to make deer cover by itself. Its a good wildlife plant if you want forbs mixed in your grasses, because its one that is tough enough to hang in there a few years without doing any disking to set the grass back.

Yep, the fall colors are not far a way now. I can hardly wait!

 

[Native Hunter]

This picture isn't very good quality, but you can see where JW has been browsed down pretty far on the stem recently. Late summer is when I see this the most. If you look closely you can see other stems in the background.

 

[greyphase]

Heck, those aren't rocks their stones. They have to be as big as your two fists put together to be called rocks here in Pa:D.

Looks like a nice little piece of heaven you got there N. H.:cool: More pics please.

 

[foggy]

"Yep, the fall colors are not far a way now. I can hardly wait!"

Hey! Don't wish time away......it's the stuff my life is made of. :);)

Nice pics and tour of your property!

 

[Native Hunter]

Heck, those aren't rocks their stones. They have to be as big as your two fists put together to be called rocks here in Pa:D.

Looks like a nice little piece of heaven you got there N. H.:cool: More pics please.

LOL on the stones. And, its dangerous to ask me for more pics, because I'm a habitat picture junkie.:D I've taken hundreds over the last few years since converting this place from a cattle farm to a wildlife farm. More pics will be on the way soon, and we can just turn this into a property tour thread. I've been wanting to do that anyway.

 

[Native Hunter]

"Yep, the fall colors are not far a way now. I can hardly wait!"

Hey! Don't wish time away......it's the stuff my life is made of. :);)

Nice pics and tour of your property!

Thanks foggy. And so true about wishing time away. We need to be relishing every minute.

 

[tooln]

Looking good. So about the rocks are they delivered? o_O

 

[Native Hunter]

Looking good. So about the rocks are they delivered? o_O

If the customer pays for the shipping!:D

 

[Native Hunter]

Here is an view of my place. I inherited this land from my grandparents and lived on it much of my life. No one lives on the place now and the house is beyond repair, but I have a good barn and some decent outbuildings. Farm is 100 acres. I'm attached to this land in a way I can't explain. It's not in the kind of country to be a top whitetail place, but I wouldn't trade it for any other place in the world - its home.

Until around 2008 - We farmed cattle here. No deer to hunt here. I hunted somewhere else. Before this I did do a 12 acre tree planting, but no big impact for a few years.

2009: First year without cattle. Didn't mow, and had fair weedy and grass cover by season. Took my first deer off this place - a fair 4 year old.

2010: Put all fields into Native Grasses. Got into CREP and signed up for 15 years. No cover the first year and no deer to hunt.

2011: Hunted some and passed some 3 year olds.

2012: Same as 2011

2013: Took a 5 year old that I had 4 years history on. Feeling good about that.

Blue = ponds and stream
Yellow Boot Shape = 12 acre tree planting
White dots = current stands. Center one is a tower blind
Red = property line
All fields now in tall native grasses and forbs.

More to come later when I get some more time. I have plenty of pics to share and a lot of details about how I designed the tree planting that I think you would enjoy. Also I think you will enjoy the strategy about how I laid out food plots, cut gaps into interior fences to direct deer traffic, and try to make the best out of what I already have.

I also hope that some of you will see things I may have missed and give me some ideas for improvement. I'm all ears on that and want to hear your thoughts and comments.

 

[Native Hunter]

The new tree planting was designed with the following concepts:

White pine road screen on the south side (bottom of the yellow boot and the toe of the boot)

Fruit and nut trees on the east side facing the grass fields (to continue to get sunlight as the center of planting matures)

The rest of the planting with several different hardwood species to eventually be dominated by 8 different varieties of oaks.

Laid out in 12 foot rows to get a 10 foot bushhog through as long as needed to eliminate sweet gum competition.


Road Screen this spring



Some Fruit and nut trees in recent years:















More to come.

 

[Native Hunter]

The following are deeper in the planting. Pics taken this spring when I was doing maintenance. All maintenance is in spring: By fall this is a grown up jungle. Some rows have trees so big I have quit mowing.







Dead debris is where I whacked sweet gums within rows two week earlier.



I let some get really big and take them out in pieces.



Typical oak shown below.



I'm going to stop here and see if there are any questions on the tree planting before I continue.

 

[sandbur]

I'm impressed!

What kind of apple is that big one in your hand and what is in the second picture following that-some type of oak?

 

[Native Hunter]

I'm impressed!

What kind of apple is that big one in your hand and what is in the second picture following that-some type of oak?

Thanks Sandbur. The apple is beautiful but not a variety I recommend. I have found it to be too prone to fireblight. In years when fireblight is not bad you will get a few apples like this, but in recent years FB has been a problem every year. It's an old cultivar from the Civil War era called Mrs. Bryan that originated in Tennessee. I've got my lesson up on apple varieties now but had to go through the school of Hard Knocks to get there.

The other large looking apple is a Black Limbertwig, and it is a winner. Nothing seems to touch it, and you get a good crop each year. I have several apple cultivars in this planting and also several at home.

The nuts you asked about are Witch Hazel. Ironic, but they were sold to me as hazelnuts. On the first crop I saw what they were. I'm not disappointed; however, because they are a great shrub, and you can eat the small nuts if you have the patience.

These three rows of trees and shrubs near the east side are 1200 feet long rows and filled with apples, crabapples, pears, plums, hazel, witch hazel, viburnum, persimmon, domestic cherry, red osier, chestnut, elderberry, and probably several things I don't remember.

After I get done with spring maintenance the rows grow up with goldenrods and other native weeds. By fall hunting season its a jungle and the grass fields are too. I keep one row mowed between the trees and grass so late in the year I can forage for fruit. My tower blind I built last year looks at this whole edge from 150 yards away.

 

[Native Hunter]

This is a pic of the tower blind while under construction last year - looking from the tree planting. There is a tall goldenrod field that separates them.

And yes, before anyone asks - I went overboard on the blind, but I wanted me, my son, and my dad to be able to hunt together if we wanted to.

Blind is 16 feet at floor level but doesn't look that tall in the pic.

 

[foggy]

This is a pic of the tower blind while under construction last year - looking from the tree planting. There is a tall goldenrod field that separates them.

And yes, before anyone asks - I went overboard on the blind, but I wanted me, my son, and my dad to be able to hunt together if we wanted to.

Blind is 16 feet at floor level but doesn't look that tall in the pic.

How much are the property taxes on that "blind"? ;)

 

[Native Hunter]

How much are the property taxes on that "blind"? ;)

LOL, I deserve that question.:D The part at the bottom is a storage building, and the blind attaches to it for support.

Stairs are blocked off with a door and a master lock.

Here is a finished view last fall on the road in.