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Squirrels in my part of the Ozarks are tearing up the hickory nuts right now. I got a cup of coffee yesterday morning and sat on the back patio just after daylight and watched four greys make it rain hickory nut cuttings out of a big hickory tree at the edge of my mowed yard. If it wasn't 100* by noon I would be tempted to go collect a few for the skillet. I hate hot weather.

Ought to be a good mast crop with all the rain we've had this year so I'm hoping for a good squirrel season. Ours opens September 9th here in Alabama.

Its the squirrel sticks that people hate up north. The squirrels are prepping for winter nest building and they drop all kinds of short leafy branches for nest building. The neighbor picks them all up every day and the next day there is a whole new bunch. The squirrels want them dried for their nests, but they don’t stay on the lawn long enough to dry out.

I’ve got seven oak trees in the yard at another house and i probably get a thousand pounds of acorns in a good mast year. I’ve been thinking of feeding the deer with them, but I’m afraid that the squirrels will bury them all over the yard. Picking them up every year is a big job. I bought a Bear Cat lawn vacuum that picks them really well.

I have 300 acres behind the house with a creek and two ponds. It's about a 60/40 woods-to-fields ratio. There is a hickory grove right at the edge of my mowed yard and that is where the squirrels start cutting every year. On a good year, there may be a dozen squirrels scurrying around at any given time cutting mast and yes they bury some in the yard. The cuttings dry out and get hard and sharp and running the mower over them sounds like I'm mowing a gravel road. I mow to throw them out of the yard and into the woods. It is a little bit of a pain in the butt however we are used to critters around the place and it is what it is.

I noticed where the squirrels have started cutting hickory here in WV.

That sounds like paradise MOGC!

they are cutting the green pine cones hear in this part of FLA. under every pine tree looks like a 5gal. bucket of chips

The only time I see squirrels around here cutting pine cones here is when the hickory and acorn production is low. Pine cones seem to be the last choice on the menu for Ozark squirrels.

This would have been a good weekend to get after them before the heat rolls in again

MOGC the pine cones come in before hickory nuts & acorns do here .in town were there is a bunch of big hickory trees the squirrels will eat french fries out of mcdonalds dumpster before they eat the hickory nuts

Several mornings this week are predicted to be in the mid-'50s. Then warming back up over the weekend. I may get a chance to go on Thursday or Friday morning.

Season opens here on Friday and same as every year since I started hunting, I've been looking forward to it for months. Supposed to be in the low 50's and clear skies on Fri., Sat. and Sun. morning so nice weather for it. Checked zero on all my .22's last week. Can't wait.

I think I'll verify my sight-in on a couple of my .22 rifles one morning this week. I usually hunt with a .22, either rifle or handgun. However, I just bought a little Beretta SxS 20 gauge shotgun and I'd really like to hunt with it ASAP. So while it is still greened up I may take the double barrel out and kill a few with it. Need to get familiar with double triggers!

Hickory and Pecan are the two trees I look for in our early season. Last year I shot 4 on opening day out of a single hickory tree. Shoot one, wait a bit and the rest came back out shoot another, rinse and repeat.

I have a big pine by my driveway. The green pinecone chips are all over I raked up a trashcan full already. I used to shoot the squirrels with CB shorts but my neighbors call in on me.

one good thing about them cutting the green pine cones is you can watch the chips fall and find the one doing the cutting ,it will take a wile for one to eat the cone, I have killed a bunch doing that

Watched a squirrel bury a hickory nut in the yard this morning.