He planted 12 different cool season forage species in an array of plantings and documented the deer’s preference for different food plot types by visually observing the number of deer to visit each plot and by using exclusion cages in his food plots.  Also, he analyzed a variety of nutritional components of each forage and finished his report this spring of 2011.

From a nutritional standpoint, brassicas had the lowest indigestible fiber content and the highest phosphorous and calcium content.  Chicory was a standout performer in terms of sodium content, and though winter wheat did have a bit more indigestible fiber content than other cool season forages, it did have the highest yield (dry weight) per acre of all species tested.

Most importantly for hunters, winter wheat and lupines ranked highest in the deer preference category.  We all know what wheat is, but lupines are a seldom utilized deer forage plant.

Lupines are most easily recognized by their long stem of blue flowers, but their use goes far beyond their good looks.  Lupines are legumes which means they are high in protein and fix nitrogen in the soil to double their benefits.  Also heavily utilized by wild turkeys, plants often grow to heights of 3 feet or more and provide tremendous winter cover for small mammals and songbirds.

Take home message – whatever you decide to plant in your fall food plots, incorporating some winter wheat will ensure that you have an ingredient that the deer are sure to be attracted to.

Not many folks have ever encountered one in the grocery store (at least not where I’m from), but they are tasty if you can get your hands on one.  Something like a cross between radish and turnip.  Sliced thin with a pinch of salt.  Mmm…

I won’t bore you with all the details, but for me the highlight of the trip was a visit to Tallulah Falls.

Here’s a few pictures from the hike we took.  Only about a mile long total, but you got out to 5 different overlooks and a 600 step hike down to the suspension bridge that spanned the chasm above the waterfalls.

The three of us (expecting a baby, remember?!)

Mom trying not to look too uneasy about the suspension bridge.

One of the last waterfalls in a series of 5 or 6 major cascades.  This one is called Bridal Veil for obvious reasons.

Mom and dad at the final outlook.

It’s always so hard to visualize the grandeur of the natural world through photographs but I tried to include mom taking a picture in my picture to give some perspective.  1000 foot plunge to the bottom.

The one thing that struck me about the mountains was how many more bugs they have than where I live now in the “Piedmont” region of Alabama – not the mountains but not the coastal plain either.

Found this unique specimen hanging out at our resort.  Never seen one quite like it and identified it as the Spiny Oakworm Moth (Scientific name Anisota stigma).  As its name would suggest, the moth’s caterpillars uses various species of oak trees as its host but after pupating the caterpillar overwinters underground.  The following spring, moths emerge long enough to mate and reproduce but live so shortly that the adult moths do not eat anything before dying.

I included a “nab” in this photo to show the immense size of this Hercules beetle (scientific name Dynastes tityus).  Biggest beetle I’ve ever seen!

Well, I know quite a few folks who have spent countless hours freezing their tails off in a deer stand with nothing impressive (at least in the antler category) to show for it.  Then again, we all know somebody who can seemingly run a climber up a light pole in a parking lot and bring home the bacon (fortunately I’ve had a few years that people would lump me in the latter category).

One of my favorite sayings is that “luck happens where preparation meets opportunity”.  I’d like to say that I can create for myself a certain amount of “luck” by keeping in as close a tune as possible to the animals that I am hunting and by taking every necessary (notice the word necessary)  precaution before, during, and after each trip afield.  This encompasses everything from practicing from your treestand in your backyard with the exact setup (down to the facemask, gloves, and outfits you’ll be wearing) you will be using during the hunting season to not trying to force a honeyhole set-up until the conditions are prime to making sure your shooting lanes are trimmed adequately but not so heavy that deer realize something is out of place.

Tip-toeing naked from your house’s front door to your hunting vehicle to avoid getting any scent getting on your hunting underwear is not necessary.  It may make you feel more confident (which may in fact improve other things you do), but I’ve been learning some things about scent control that lends pretty strong evidence to what I’ve long thought to be true.  Pay attention to the wind, then hunt (not to be mistaken for the products of ScentLok or Scentblocker or whatever).  Oh wait, I’m getting off track… another subject for another time.

So I still haven’t addressed the law of averages…  A wise man once said that only a fool does the same thing over and over again, yet expects a different result.  Does heading for the same block of woods 39 times over the course of a hunting season to set in the same exact treestand constitute doing the same thing over and over again.  I dare say it does.  But is this necessarily a bad thing?

Well, some hunters only have 1 spot to hunt and in that case you just have to make the best out of a less-than-optimal deal, but the truth is that the very best hunt you will get out of a stand is your first.

That being said, I’m of the school of thought that if something fails 2 or 3 times in a row, it’s probably going to fail a 4th or a 5th time too.  Now I realize that hunters have unique tools at their disposal these days that may indicate that a buck is only visiting an area in daylight every 10 or 12 days and it may seem like a repetitious game plan is the way to go, but one thing my research has shown me is that big deer are creatures of habit.  They do the same thing day after day after day until something changes – either a hunter disturbs their routine, a food source dries up and they have to switch their dietary focus, or does start to smell good.

If you’re counting on being in a treestand during the 1 hour each month when a shooter buck comes by that particular tree, then I hope you’ve got a good book to pass the time.  EVERY big buck I’ve ever tracked as part of my research projects has a discernible pattern that if unraveled (a HUGE caveat), would put that deer in harm’s way on a weekly if not almost daily basis.  Yes, during daylight hours.  Now he might not be in danger on your hunting property, but he’s exposing himself somewhere.

My dad was forced into just such a situation last year when a stud 8 point in the 140″ range made an appearance every 8 or 10 days for nearly the entire season.  Unfortunately, he never got trail pictures of the deer at any other spot to establish a more consistent pattern and spent 2 months saying “if I’d only been there yesterday!”.  A real frustrating thing that I’m sure most hunters have dealt with.

Is hunting just luck or is there a “law of averages” that shakes out in the end?  There’s not a real clear answer to that question because there are still hunters out there on each end of an extreme spectrum.  Guys that have no business graduating from the Boy Scouts, yet manage to drag a trophy buck out of the woods every couple of seasons.  Guys that do everything by the book, lay seemingly unthwartable plans, only to eat tag soup every December.

I still think the phrase “I’d rather be lucky than good” sometimes has enormous benefits to the lucky.

Thankfully there are things we can do to tip the scale in our favor.  Things like preparing for every situation before they happen, hunting where big bucks are known to live (there is no excuse banging your head against a wall trying to shoot a buck of your standards that isn’t there with all the technology that is readily available today), and being out in the woods giving it a honest try as often as you can.  When we do all those things as best we know how, hopefully you’ll fall out somewhere in the middle with a mix of ridiculously frustrating occurrences of bad luck and heaven-sent blessings of good luck.

Dad, I think maybe that big buck won’t be quite so lucky this fall.

My wife and I met my parents and her parents and sister with twin nephews in the mountains of north Georgia last week.  It was a great time that spells the last relief that I will have in quite a while.

My written comprehensive exams for my doctoral program are slated for the last week of July and between now and then I intend to commence with my third and final round of deer darting for my research project.

Immediately thereafter, I will hopefully survive the second half of my comps – being grilled by my committee members in a roundtable discussion format.  With that, I’ll be teaching a class this fall at Auburn University as well as taking a statistics class and silvicultural practices class (any good “wildlifer” worth his salt should know his way around logging equipment).

Also, I managed to get my hands on a pole spear which after I visit the ALDNR’s website to pick up my $5 spearfishing permit, I’ll have a nice refreshing summer sport to try and put a couple catfish fillets on the table in the next couple months.  But what am I thinking, free time?

Oh, did I mention Kara is now 27 weeks pregnant with our first child.  Raelyn Mae is expected to arrive sometime around the beginning of October.

Anyways, you get the picture.  In the middle of all this other stuff, I’ve still got my list of publications and side projects that I’m working on in the office at Auburn University.  Crazy busy right now, but I’ve been rolling my to-do-list over as fast as I can lately, so that means a lot is getting done.

I’ll be better with my posting the rest of the summer and as darting begins and the temperatures cool off, you know you can count on some great reading material from The Outdoor Smorgasbord!

Came across an article about the potential threats of wind energy to wildlife that came from the Pennsylvania Game Commission last year.

I’ll just throw out some of the more interesting tidbits.

*One of the major issues with wind energy development is deciding where to place windmill fields and attempting to ensure they do not impede major bird and mammal migration corridors.

*Each turbine killed on 25 bats per year on average with the hoary bat comprising the largest percentage of mortalities.

*Each turbine killed an average of 4 birds per year.

*No eagle kills were detected during monitoring or simultaneous bird kills of flocks greater than 50 individuals.

Not outrageous numbers by any means, but it always fascinates me to see how manmade structures, that 99% of people don’t give a second thought about, have an impact on the other critters that are roaming around out there in the world too.

Windmills are pretty awesome though.  First time I saw any, I was traveling through central Texas on my way with 7 other guys to hunt whitetails near San Angelo, Texas.  I was blown away by how huge each blade on those spinning turbines was.  Impressive to say the least.

Got into several hills of fire ants on Saturday while weeding out my garden and planting some more summer crops.  Looks like I have a potentially fatal case of the chicken pox from mid-shin down.

The ground assault couldn’t bring me to my knees, so finally, mother nature broke out her miniature fighter pilots while I was mowing the grass Saturday night.  Yellow jackets!

I just cried “Uncle!” and ran into the house.

I was reading the Pennsylvania Game News magazine that my grandma bought me a subscription for several years ago and it was noting some of the more interesting highlights of last year’s survey.  I guess it caught my eye because I’ve been keeping sunflower seeds out for the birds this year and have been attempting to catalogue the species I’ve seen.

Here were some of the highlights from this year’s survey.

*A brown shrike was documented in California and a common chaffinch was seen in Newfoundland and Labrador.  Both species were the first ever reported in North America by the bird count.  I’m not familiar with either species.

Brown shrike

Common chaffinch

Also, an Alaskan bird watcher saw a Brambling at her feeder – the only reported sighting in all of North America.

Species I’m a little more familiar with would be the evening grosbeak which had the highest numbers ever reported – exciting news for a population that has been tanking for the past couple decades.

I would encourage everyone to check out the organization’s website and possibly consider volunteering this next spring.  It’s not difficult and if you already like watching birds, the more data that can be provided, the more complete this citizen-based survey of bird species in North America will be.

One more interesting fact from a graph provided on the website, 37 of the participants from last year had a life list (list of every bird species a person has seen and/or heard during his/her lifetime) exceeding 1,000 bird species.  That might not mean anything to some folks, but to put it in perspective…there are only 914 species in all of North America.