game bird habitat...

[growalot]

We talk extensively and nearly exclusively on deer habitat. With the decline of game birds perhaps more time on game bird habitat is in order.

Now I'm well aware any habitat improvement will help most wild life,but some deer management can exclude good bird habitat...especially when bugging and nesting cover is considered for some species.

To that, what are some of your thoughts and or practices as habitat managers do you incorporate or plan on.

[SplitG2]

millets and NWSG are good for bird habitat.  Keep the pounds per acre down on the NWSG's so the birds can move through it.  Soft mass like elderberry, blackberry and other berries are good.

[growalot]

Been a good day...out of like again...Excellent post...getting familiar with naturally occurring mast and nutrient /sun requirements for them, should be a high priority for any land manager.

 

this year the WW in certain areas will be left to head out also millet will line the corn as I have done in the past...The benefits of buck wheat for everything can't be understated.

 

Hophorn  or basswood trees excellent and wild current /goose berries ...those spring time mayapples...all should be plants learned about. The cutting of poplar and why.

 

http://dnr.wi.gov/files/PDF/pubs/wm/WM0220_b.pdf

[LET EM GROW]

I have quite a few grouse on our piece in Avoca, NY.. seems like they are always in the "golden rod" and scattered pines. We have quite a few elderberry trees, black berries, blue berries and etcc.. The lady who owned our piece before us, seemed to know what she was doing when drawing in the wildlife, our property is  beautifully layed out and littered with many different berries, apples, pears, oaks, chesnuts you name it....

 

I would love to see more of these birds around though.. i think ill be researching on providing for them as well 

[G-Man]

I do a lot of aspen projects for grouse, clear cutting so cloning can take place, winterberry,highbush cranberry,blueberry have all been planted along with clumps of white spruce and fir for winter cover and roosting.

For Phesant i like hedgerows, standing corn , grey doogwood, some spruce , and standing corn and fallow field in strips. Thus project is only in its second year and I'm interested to see what kind of hold over I get from 190 birds let go this year.

Turkey, clearing limbs from field side to allow birds to fly up and roost, and cerial grains planted for fall, as well as fallow field in solid blocks of several acres mowed in beginning of July and left regrowth standing for bugging and nesting

[Doewhacker]

Here is what I would do as a complete package,

 

First I would have the property selectively logged, meaning not clear cut but not sparingly either. With the logging would be gravel roads for the birds to pick around in and for ease of access. I would then set it up on a rotation plan to have it logged in sections every few years. Grouse do best in a diverse habitat and I have found the best numbers in forest's 9-16 years old.

 

Of course I would make sure to have the above mentioned berries and some apple tree's too.

 

Woodcock prefer forest made up of tree's not much more than 3" across, thick but not too thick, I plan on thinning my land this year before green up of most big tree's. The side benefit is firewood for me.

 

Currently during cutting I leave tops and branches scattered through out, this provides cover for birds and rabbit as well, I have many already with great success.

 

I also leave a strip of grasses uncut to create a buffer zone, again birds and other game like that including deer.

 

Water is often over looked for birds and it is important too.

 

Other food sources such as corns, millets, oats, buckwheat, or soybeans. Weed seeds like thistle grasses, sumac, nightshade, burdock, and rag weed are heavy seeders. Trees such as dogwood, wild cherry, and  hardwoods. All the wild berries and tame berry varieties are great attractants as well as beans, sunflowers, clovers, sorghums and dandelions.

 

 

Look for topics like this and more coming up on our web site and facebook.

 

http://thebirdhuntersofnewyork.weebly.com/

 

 

[Zag]

Been a good day...out of like again...Excellent post...getting familiar with naturally occurring mast and nutrient /sun requirements for them, should be a high priority for any land manager.

 

this year the WW in certain areas will be left to head out also millet will line the corn as I have done in the past...The benefits of buck wheat for everything can't be understated.

 

Hophorn  or basswood trees excellent and wild current /goose berries ...those spring time mayapples...all should be plants learned about. The cutting of poplar and why.

 

http://dnr.wi.gov/files/PDF/pubs/wm/WM0220_b.pdf

At the end you referenced cutting of poplar....... tell me more!

[landtracdeerhunter]

I keep a small farm atmosphere to attract game birds. It works!

[growalot]

Zag , Straight from 2 DEC foresters that I had check on log markings years ago...drop them, any popular over 30 ft is of no use to anything especially grouse. Grouse feed on the buds of popular and once you cut them down they sucker from the root. This is if it is a cluster and the cutting opens the area to sun..so in cutting large clumps you are setting up future cover and food with regrowth...I posted pics a year or 2 ago of such an area that I dropped all the SIZABLE poplar...careful in cutting big ones they tend to snap and are extremely heavy until dry.... I am seeing some regrowth in roots...but not as much as hoped for, because the area holds many maple and well a large cherry and oak...neither I'll touch ..I am thinning bad and diseased maples though...That said the cross over of those large poplar logs have the deer bedding big time. the turkey as well come in for bugs...It's funny to watch because Toms love logs...they jump up and scan the area and gobble like crazy... mini look out "towers"...Same foresters told me ...want birds...do not touch your hophorn...so I have watched over the years...they should have said deer as well...for I have oak and hophorn side by side...the deer will literally spend hours wobbling around on their hind legs to get to those fall seed clusters...with acorns under their feet.

[LET EM GROW]

Glad I will be cutting a ton of poplar down this winter.. can't wait to see the re growth and generation of ground food and cover. They can be scary to cut as you've said. If you look through the woods, the majority of dead downed trees are poplar

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[growalot]

Great thing is they rot really well and both the birds and deer seem to gravitate to the rotting logs.

[G-Man]

Glad I will be cutting a ton of poplar down this winter.. can't wait to see the re growth and generation of ground food and cover. They can be scary to cut as you've said. If you look through the woods, the majority of dead downed trees are poplar

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Make sure you cut as low to ground as possible to encourage root cloning, cutting a stump a foot or more out of the ground limits cloning. Under 6in stump works best.

[LET EM GROW]

Thank you. I will make sure to do that.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk