acorn drop timing

[BSK]

Well, what I had hoped for happened: a few trees were holding their acorns and then suddenly dumped them. Yesterday I found a few - just a few - trees that just dumped acorns in the last week. Most are undersized or have weevils in them, but the deer are eating them. Most are Black Oaks.

 

[Smo]

White Oaks started dropping in N. Humphreys Co several weeks ago.
Mostly because of the drought conditions, I think.

Riding my trike yesterday in Humphreys & Houston Counties we ran through several areas with heavy mast crops falling on the road.

I camped last week down in N. Mississippi, they have a good acorn crop this year as well.
But no persimmons..

I have a decent crop of both this year.

 

[BSK]

White Oaks started dropping in N. Humphreys Co several weeks ago.
Mostly because of the drought conditions, I think.

Riding my trike yesterday in Humphreys & Houston Counties we ran through several areas with heavy mast crops falling on the road.

We have no White Oak acorns at all in my part of Humphreys. However, I found the Reds/Blacks like you did. I was driving my ATV on a gravel road that borders my place and I ran into two big piles of Red and Black Oak acorns. Started looking around on the roads through my place, and I found a few more. They weren't there a week ago.

 

[Smo]

I just found the first scape of the year on my place this morning…..

Heavy feeding under the white oaks on the ridge tops here that wasn't present last week.

 

[BSK]

I just found the first scape of the year on my place this morning…..

Heavy feeding under the white oaks on the ridge tops here that wasn't present last week.

I've been tracking rubbing and scraping activity, as well as acorn crops, for years. I've found that in a drought acorn-failure year, we will have almost no rubs, and far fewer scrapes than normal. In a bumper acorn year, rubs and scrapes are everywhere. This year looks like half-way in between the two extremes. Not as many rubs as normal, but I'm still finding them. Scrapes below normal, but I am finding them and they're being worked fairly regularly.

 

[Smo]

Zero rubs on my place so far…

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Notmuch sign at all on our place at all. I'd say the winds with this front coming in will knock off most remaining acorns still hanging on.

 

[killingtime 41]

Anyone else seeing a weird acorn drop timing? We have a very, VERY poor acorn crop this year, but while out last Friday I noticed freshly dropping (although underdeveloped) Chestnut Oak acorns. That's about 3 weeks late. Normally, peak Chestnut Oak acorn drop in my area is around Sept 15-20. I'm seeing a few Black and Red Oak acorns on the ground, but most are full of weevils. However, deer are still eating them like crazy. I'm just hoping acorn drop timing is "off" by a couple of weeks this year, and somewhere there are still some acorns waiting to fall. I'm also hoping the oaks in the Red family do what they normally do, which is drop a few acorns over the whole fall season, unlike the Whites which usually drop at all once. We have a very few Reds with acorns and some Blacks as well.

Is chesnut and Chinkapin the same trees

 

[BSK]

Is chesnut and Chinkapin the same trees

No, but the leaves look very similar. Mountain Chestnut is a huge acorn NOT preferred by deer (except when they're the only acorn available). Chinkapin is a HIGHLY preferred acorn.

 

[Dumbluck]

I've found a few black oaks and red Oaks dropping sparingly. I hunted one on Monday afternoon and had a shooter come in right at dark, he hung up behind the big oak for about 10 minutes which put him past legal light. I had to watch him walk right under me. I found an excellent scrape line yesterday and plan to either hunt it or a pinch point tomorrow morning.