Osage Roost
General Forum => General Discussion => Topic started by: Old Geezer on November 06, 2013, 03:59:54 PM
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My wife and some fellow hunters think I have gone off my rocker when I start sorting through the crop contents of birds I shoot. But by identifying what the birds are eating, at times it makes them easier to find. The grouse I shot before the PA turkey opener had eaten multiflora rose hips and some small crabapples, what I consider regular grouse food. When I examined the crop of my opening day mature hen I was in for a surprise. Nine nuts from a Pignut Hickory tree, many barberries, small millipedes -still alive, some dandelion leaves, a green stink bug, some unidentified seeds in the upper left that had sprouted and other items. If you see anything not mentioned add it to the thread.
Ralph
(http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k273/yelper_2006/HPIM0388_zps5eac15bf.jpg) (http://s90.photobucket.com/user/yelper_2006/media/HPIM0388_zps5eac15bf.jpg.html)
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We always opened the crops of Grouse back when there were grouse. They were always full of Mountain Tea. I have 't seen any Mountain Tea in years By coincidence, I haven't seen any grouse in years either.
The hollow I hunt is full of Pig Nuts. That might be part of the reason the birds were hard to find. Food everywhere.
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I always find it very interesting myself Ralph and I agree it sure helps to know.
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Ralph, I have always heard that turks eat hickory nuts and I have opened a few crops (but not all :() and that is the first hickory nuts I have seen. PROOF AT LAST! ;D The bird my niece took this past weekend was half full of pawpaw seeds.
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I do it with everything I harvest be it fish, deer or turkeys. You can learn a lot.
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My dad would always do a necropsy on the stomach of any game we brought home from our hunts. Didn't make a difference if it was squirrel, fox or deer, we studied and learned when and where to find game when they became scarce. It's always helped me when I'm in the woods and hunting.
Bill
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Ralph, I have always heard that turks eat hickory nuts and I have opened a few crops (but not all :() and that is the first hickory nuts I have seen. PROOF AT LAST! ;D The bird my niece took this past weekend was half full of pawpaw seeds.
the pawpaw that the banana like fruit right?
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Ralph, I have always heard that turks eat hickory nuts and I have opened a few crops (but not all :() and that is the first hickory nuts I have seen. PROOF AT LAST! ;D The bird my niece took this past weekend was half full of pawpaw seeds.
the pawpaw that the banana like fruit right?
Yes it is Brian. You find them around old farms up here.
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Good post Ralph, I always check it myself, even with the fish I catch, helps a lot.
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I always check. Interesting to see the various stuff the birds eat. The Turkeys really know how to shop for food.
Good Post!!
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I check the crops too......ducks, turkeys, dove........found a crop full of trillium leaves once, and dogwood blossoms another time.....
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I always do this too Ralph. It's great to see the what is on the local salad bar. Imagine how I felt last year when I opened up a crop on a beautiful tom to find it full of scratch (cracked corn and wheat) grain!! :o :o Since nobody on the property hunted turkeys and it was my first visit of the year, it certainly can tell you what the neighbors are doing!! ??? ???
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I typically check the crop also. And I recall the first time I killed a bird with a crop full of corn. Scared the heck out of me. That answered why the turkeys always wanted to be heading over to the neighboring property....
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Here is one we killed on the Rosebud Indian Reservation a few years back.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v388/callmaningulfport/crawl.jpg)
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Great photo, they look like corn worms. Does anyone have a positive ID?
Ralph
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Might as Corn Doc Erick. If anybody would know corn worms it would probably be him.
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For anyone in AG areas be free to print this photo off.. We took Sals nephew this weekend whom is 11 was gonna hit this place Saturday but the field was covered in tractors planting corn.. Long story short hit it Sunday, saw 2 males and a hen out in the field they came sprinting in from 300 yards bang flop 2 gobblers and a hen came running.. Breasted him out and was shocked at the crop.. It was packed full of seed corn, the picture does not emphasize the pink but it is there.. Walking in you could see pink corn scattered here and there.. Wonder what the pink is.. I never believed turkeys did this much damage..
(http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj34/byle1/DSCN0287.jpg) (http://s268.photobucket.com/user/byle1/media/DSCN0287.jpg.html)
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Good post. Last year a crop contained 47 seed corn sprouts with corn attached. Took it to the farmer and showed him. Cemented permission there. Prior to the hunt I had called him to say there was a longbeard and a jake picking his new crop. He said he never imagined how many less ears there would be from one bird. They were in that field about 4 hrs that day. I was waiting on a friend who had not gotten his first bird yet. Lucky for me he was delayed and said go get em.
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Might as Corn Doc Erick. If anybody would know corn worms it would probably be him.
I tried to get a positive ID of the worms in Magnoliagamecalls' pic, but after having three Entomologists (bug professionals) who know their stuff look at it, they couldn't confirm the subtle differences needed to produce positive ID. *aah*
Prolly a variant of armyworms.
It is certainly an impressive crop of worms though.
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This is from a fall bird a few years back.
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Keep the posts coming. I'm waiting to see who opens up a crop and has a snake pop out!
Ralph