Deer avoiding foot plots-what are they feeding on?

[Tap]

So the question is how the heck do you pinpoint what leaves they are feeding on? One guy said red leaves are preferred, one said poplar leaves, how do I possibly scout for this? I do agree some other food source has taken over, we have zero acorns let alone oaks for miles. I wish I knew how I could pinpoint what leaves they prefer, we have sugar maple, poplar, beach, and apple trees, what leaves should I focus on? This could truly be why I see an October lull around here every year. Are leaves for quality forage? My plots are simply amazing why would deer want a leaf instead of a radish.

That was me that said maple leaves that are red seem preferred over the yellow maple leaves but they do eat both. And I've seen the best leaf eating of the large yellow poplar leaves. There's no doubt that poplar leaves is one of their favorite fall foods where I hunt.
Exactly how you pin point which individual trees they are keying in on is difficult. I can't say I know the answer but I do know that for a 3 week period when leaves are falling, deer spend a lot of time feeding on a wide variety of leaf species.

And I think they prefer fallen leaves over ones that are still on the tree. There is something about the upper leaves of mature trees that must taste better than the ones growing at ground level. The same thing with browse... My deer don't browse the ground level twigs of hickory, but when I cut a mature hickory for firewood, they hammer every bud on every branch when the tree is down on the ground. Must be a chemical change in mature growth that makes it taste better.
I think it's one more ingredient of the "lull". IMO, Food near beds, deer's awareness of hunting pressure, and winter coats while it's still warm all contribute to a drop in deer daytime deer sightings during the middle of October.

 

[Phil]

That was me that said maple leaves that are red seem preferred over the yellow maple leaves but they do eat both. And I've seen the best leaf eating of the large yellow poplar leaves. There's no doubt that poplar leaves is one of their favorite fall foods where I hunt.
Exactly how you pin point which individual trees they are keying in on is difficult. I can't say I know the answer but I do know that for a 3 week period when leaves are falling, deer spend a lot of time feeding on a wide variety of leaf species.

And I think they prefer fallen leaves over ones that are still on the tree. There is something about the upper leaves of mature trees that must taste better than the ones growing at ground level. The same thing with browse... My deer don't browse the ground level twigs of hickory, but when I cut a mature hickory for firewood, they hammer every bud on every branch when the tree is down on the ground. Must be a chemical change in mature growth that makes it taste better.
I think it's one more ingredient of the "lull". IMO, Food near beds, deer's awareness of hunting pressure, and winter coats while it's still warm all contribute to a drop in deer daytime deer sightings during the middle of October.

This subject is very interesting to me and now makes more sense. This has to be what happens every year, because fall in Vermont has tons of leaves. I am seeing tons of bear and turkey this year, that is why I know the beech but crop is non existent. On good beach nut but years we see very few bear and turkey. Thanks for this awesome info.

 

[browndog]

My corn plots and alfalfa plot are getting hit hard right now. This is the earliest I have ever seen my corn plots get hit this hard, if this keeps up, my corn plots will be wiped out by mid November. I also noticed huge trails heading into corn fields the last two weeks.

 

[BobinCt]

Born again- what a beautiful deer.

 

[bornagain62511]

Monster buck! Beautiful! Nice job.

Born again- what a beautiful deer.

thanks guys. Yes, that bucks was a great blessing from God, definitely did not happen by chance. Even the fact that I was able to get permission to hunt the property adjacent to where his main sanctuary was located, even that was a huge gift from above. This buck had been observed around town for several years before I shot him. After I got this buck I had him aged by cementum analysis and he was found to be 7.5 years old! There was talk for several years prior to me killing this buck, about people seeing this huge buck occasionally crossing the road and such. There were some other really serious hunters who were pursuing this buck, and there were thousands of acres of public land within his home range that this buck frequented as well. But for years he was able to evade all the hunters. I was very blessed to have been able hunt for such an animal.

Here's a trail cam picture of him about a month before I shot him. I was pretty delighted to find this and several other pictures of this buck on my camera!!

 

[BobinCt]

That's priceless. That's a dream deer for me. It makes it extra special with the story you just told, too. Can't top that. What a feeling it must have been.

 

[Tap]

Poke weed is another native that starts to get hit hard at this time of the year. I know some guys say their deer won't eat it but they love it here. I'll try to post a pic.

 

[Tap]

Poke weed is another native that starts to get hit hard at this time of the year. I know some guys say their deer won't eat it but they love it here. I'll try to post a pic.

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[MoBuckChaser]

Nice Buck BA!

I was blessed with a lot of big bucks, and I have been on a 50 year sabbatical! LOL!

 

[chummer]

So the question is how the heck do you pinpoint what leaves they are feeding on? One guy said red leaves are preferred, one said poplar leaves, how do I possibly scout for this? I do agree some other food source has taken over, we have zero acorns let alone oaks for miles. I wish I knew how I could pinpoint what leaves they prefer, we have sugar maple, poplar, beach, and apple trees, what leaves should I focus on? This could truly be why I see an October lull around here every year. Are leaves for quality forage? My plots are simply amazing why would deer want a leaf instead of a radish.

I can eliminate beeche for you. Never seen a deer touch any part of a beech tree other than the nut. I shot a buck once as he ate fallen red maple leaves off of a fallen log. It was the first time I ever saw them eat fallen leaves. I guess it makes sense now with others stories.

 

[Tap]

I can eliminate beeche for you. Never seen a deer touch any part of a beech tree other than the nut. I shot a buck once as he ate fallen red maple leaves off of a fallen log. It was the first time I ever saw them eat fallen leaves. I guess it makes sense now with others stories.

Beech is a great scrape tree. 3 years ago, we found dozens of scrapes under beech trees on an 80 acre farm. Seemed like every beech along the logging roads with a low branch had a scrape. Never saw anything like it.

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[Phil]

Talked with my uncle about deer eating leaves, and forwarded him this thread. He thought it was very interesting. He also said that back when he partridge hunted the partridge always had poplar leaves in their stomach. The hard part is locating deer eating leaves. The bus driver told me today the local bow shop is down big time in deer reported. One question we had a record drought here this year could this be compounding the situation?

 

[Native Hunter]

That buck is absolutely beyond belief.

As for the leaves, I have weeping mulberry trees in my yard. Deer come in at night and strip the lower leaves off the branches. The lower limbs pretty much stay bare the whole year. They are considered ornamental trees, but the ones I have make really nice small berries too. They are not quite as good as some other mulberries, but good enough to eat and the first to ripen.

When a wild black mulberry comes up in the fence row around my yard, it will be browsed really hard - limbs and all. I don't see any mulberry come up at my farm, and its probably because they eat them to the ground and kill them.

 

[Fall's Legend]

Already been said, but here in KS and MO food sources are changing this time of year for us. I have harvested 3 does so far this season, and all were on acorns. Regarding the leaves theory, I harvested a huge doe a few years back eating large Mulberry tree leaves. I have observed this before as well.

 

[John-W-WI]

Awesome buck.... Congrats.

We also have very few acorns.... For a change, we seem to have every deer in the neighborhood on our foodplots of corn. For the 1st time ever they have figured out they can eat the standing corn (rather than waiting until late winter). Jake and I watched them last weekend (youth season) pulling cobs off the stalk like crazy. Neighbors didn't see many deer. Stark contrast to last season where we could hardly see a deer. But last year we had TONS of acorns. So many some of the trails were like walking on a million marbles, hard to keep your footing.

-John

 

[sandbur]

Talked with my uncle about deer eating leaves, and forwarded him this thread. He thought it was very interesting. He also said that back when he partridge hunted the partridge always had poplar leaves in their stomach. The hard part is locating deer eating leaves. The bus driver told me today the local bow shop is down big time in deer reported. One question we had a record drought here this year could this be compounding the situation?

Have you had a frost in the swamps?

When swamps dry out in late August, we have jewelweed grow in them. Deer hit the jewelweed hard in early September and often bed right in the tag alders/jewelweed.

 

[Mortenson]

Here's a buck eating what looks like a fallen oak leaf while standing in succulent white clover.

 

[Tap]

Here's a buck eating what looks like a fallen oak leaf while standing in succulent white clover.

View attachment 11137

I can't tell you how many times I've watched deer eat dried, dead-brown oak leaves in the middle of the winter. If a small cluster of oak leaves gets hung-up off the ground within a deer's reach, they often stop and eat it.

 

[Phil]

Here's a buck eating what looks like a fallen oak leaf while standing in succulent white clover.

View attachment 11137

Wow, that's a cool photo. No doubt he is eating an oak leaf, that is awesome. Thanks for posting.

 

[Tap]

I witnessed a new one (for me) yesterday... Deer heavily eating spicebush leaves. It wasn't just a random bite here and there. There were 3 deer and they were definately targeting the spicebush. They were hanging around my stand for a couple hours. They'd eat for a while, bed and chew cud, then get up and eat more spicebush.
I've come to the conclusion that deer randomly feed on just about everything. I even see some browsing on stilt grass and thistle, but it's usually extremely limited. But these deer yesterday were showing more than just random browsing on spicebush. I've never seen them eat it this heavily before.