Edge Feathering & Upland Bird Habitat
Many farms that I have walked with clients more often than not feature an overgrown fence row, timber edge or random pockets of eastern red cedars that are trying to slowly take over that area. These are all items that can be used as tools on your farm to either manipulate deer movement and/or create more upland bird habitat. In this posting we will use the farms I hunt as examples.
Located right in the middle of the property I have a 2 acre plot that is a mix of perennial legumes edged with grain sorghum. To the east is a wooded hardwood draw that is highly used as a funnel for deer moving from cool season grass bedding to an agricultural field located on the south edge. To the west is a 15 acre timber pocket that is full of native browse and bedding.
As you can see in the picture above, we have multiple wooded draws that deer use primarily for transition from bed to food. As you can expect, the fence between the agriculture field and my food plot is widely used as a crossing point for deer going from bed to food and vice versa. Our goal is to create a “wall” that will manipulate the deer towards selected stand sets. We will be using an abundance of eastern red cedars to create our feathered edge.
In almost every scenario when you are doing your edge feathering, you have the ability to get twice the investment out of it. Not only are you creating a manipulation for deer movement, but you are also creating habitat for upland birds. Bobwhite Quail and Pheasant will use your new habitat as cover close to food sources and will frequent them often. More times than not on my farm when I have my dog with me (German Shorthair) he will go on point along the edges and will find a covey of quail or a pocket of multiple pheasants.
If you have access to a skid steer with a tree puller I recommend using it as much as possible to remove the trees so you don’t have to deal with the stumps later or risk not cutting them low enough to not hit them with a mower. If a skid steer is not accessible, flush cutting the cedars as low as you can to ground level works just as good! Make sure to bring some Torodon 22k or RTU with you to spray on the stumps to prohibit new growth.
When creating your edge, I recommend trying to intertwine the cedars as much as possible when laying them over, mix in some small ones to close any gaps you have and also prevent predators as much as possible getting to nested hens and broods.
One thing that I try to do almost every year is create small pockets of cover in my CRP section if the opportunity presents itself and it normally does. Once again those pesky Eastern Red Cedars show up and I cut them down, in this case I will take 4-6 of them and lay them together in a square in random spots throughout the area and I try to make sure I always have some nearby food sources. Doing this creates GREAT brood rearing habitat for those Hen Pheasants and most importantly Bobwhite Quail chicks. It can be hard to put in perspective that a quail chick is about the size of your thumb at 1 day old. These new to the world chicks need all the cover they can get from weather and predators. I do stress though if doing this on your own farm DO NOT put them in a solid line right through the area. All this will do is create a buffet line for a predator to just go right down along and check. Spread them out and increase chances of survival.
