Southern Arkansas Wildlife & Land Management Update
Heading to the shop after DEF malfunction
Camden, AR
Summer is here, and the bugs are out at WingSelect, but that means plenty of food for critters at the farm. This time of year is when young turkey poults, fawns, and other wildlife are making their first steps into the wild striving to survive. Quality habitat is critical this time of year for their survival. This is also the time of year we are trying to grow duck food so that when fall rolls around we have plenty of groceries on the ground for migrating waterfowl.
A few days ago, we had a quick sighting of wild turkey hens in one of our moist soil units with what looked to be 5 poults. These birds we assume were taking advantage of all the insects and various invertebrates in the remaining pools of water on the dewatered wetland. The birds were running off into the woods when we spotted them, so it’s hard to say definitively how many poults. We estimate their age at about 8 weeks (about 2 months) based on their size, putting the hatch date in late May. This sighting was a much-needed relief after the floods and heavy rains of this past spring. It always surprises me how these birds can withstand the elements compounded with predation. This hatch may not be as large as what we were seeing last year but should be enough to keep the local population stable. We are going to keep a close eye on these birds and put out game cameras to keep an accurate count.
All but one of our moist soil units were water sowed in rice on June 18-20th and we finished spraying and fertilizing on July 16th. We were a little late on planting because the river had much of the property inundated until mid June. We had some fall armyworms in the fields that were planted the latest, however we were able to hit those fields with a timely pesticide application. The stand is growing strong, but we need the weather to cooperate in the coming months. We received an inch of rain over this past weekend just after fertilizing so we should have good nitrogen utilization and minimal volatilization. The next week or two look like they are going to be hot and dry however the past rain should tide us over until then. Without irrigation we rely heavily on mother nature, so we keep a storehouse of millet for a late planting backup plan. Hopefully some rains come to Southern Arkansas this August keeping our rice yields high.
We have been seeing lots of mature bucks with does and fawns this summer, primarily in our moist soil units. A few weeks ago, we were jumping newborn fawns off the ground. Now we are starting to see them up and running around. Plenty of precipitation and logging has created an abundance of early successional forage on the property so we expect a good deer crop this fall. Swamp rabbits, various songbirds, wading birds, etc. all seem to be in abundance without any significant changes from last season and have been taking advantage of our habitat work.
With August in sight, all we can do now is pray for rain and keep an eye on things until the first cold snap arrives. Plan B is always an option and if our rice crop fails we can always replant in millet. The growing season grind can be tough, but I try to keep those images of mallards falling in the hole ever-present in my imagination. Otherwise, I don’t know if I could make it through these 95+ days and equipment repairs!
Stay tuned for a new post in the coming weeks on “waterfowl land management how-to’s.”