By Bill Marchel
...Observant hunters (click here) recognize red oak acorns were scarce last fall. Actually, they were basically nonexistent. Yet, last fall, bur oak acorns were extremely abundant.
It’s difficult to overemphasize the importance of acorns to wildlife. Deer will abandon nearly all other food sources when the nuts begin to drop. Black bears sometimes can’t wait for the bounty and climb the oaks to feast on green acorns. Squirrels often do the same thing. Acorns are also a favorite food of wild turkeys. Find a woodland pond with oaks limbs overhanging the water and when acorns are abundant, so too will be wood ducks, waiting for a meal to splash into the pool. Ruffed grouse eat acorns, too. I occasionally find whole acorns in the crops of harvested grouse, but ruffs also will gather along country roads and readily eat acorns bits produced when the nuts are crushed by passing vehicles.
There has been lots of confusion about the biology of acorns. Some hunters claim red oaks produce acorns only every other year. That is not true. To those hunters’ defense I’ve seen that false statement written in hunting magazines a number of times over the years. The truth is red oak acorns take two years to develop from flower to mature nut. For example, the profuse red oak acorns this year were set last spring, but didn’t mature until this year (a two-year cycle.) So, yes red oaks can produce acorns every year as long as the previous spring was favorable. The acorns of white oaks (bur oaks are in the white oak family) form in the spring, mature during the summer, and are shed in autumn of the same year (a one-year cycle).
