The Delaware hunting seasons are almost over. As usual, I have been trying to cram in as many hunts as possible (which leaves me little time to post hunt updates). Here’s a chance to catch up. Details of my past 4 weeks of hunts are listed below.

12/28/2011 – Duck hunted a private pond with no success. As soon as I walked into the pond before dawn, about 25 ducks flew out — all before shooting time. None came back. I tried the pond again in the evening and saw nothing. As an added bonus, I stepped in the deepest hole while walking out and flooded my waders.

12/30/2011 – Had a great pheasant hunt at Meadowview Preserve in New Jersey. Two neighbors, one of my daughters, my vizsla Gus, and I went on a stocked pheasant hunt in 60-degree weather. Weird weather for the end of December, but we had a nice hunt. We harvested 12 of the 16 stocked pheasants.

Great Pheasant Hunt at New Jersey's Meadowview Preserve

12/31/3011 – Curt Barkus, Gabriella, and I went on our last Delaware woodcock hunt of the season. What a great day it was! Gus pointed 3 woodcocks, and we harvested two. What’s more, Gabriella harvested her first woodcock — ever! Beautiful!

Steven and Gabriella Kendus with Gabriella's First Delaware Woodcock

1/7/2012 – I had the privilege of covering a 4-H Shooting Sports youth hunt. Literally, I saw about 100 deer. I will provide details in an upcoming post.

1/14/2012 – Since the Maryland woodcock season is still open, I purchased a Maryland license and hunted woodcocks with Curt Barkus. Within one hour of our bitter cold morning hunt, Gus got Curt his limit of 3 birds. We pushed on for 3 more hours, and I harvest one woodcock.

Curt Barkus with his first woodcock of the 2011-2012 season

1/16/2012  – Paul Quigley, Curt Barkus, and I hunted woodcocks in Maryland. It was even more cold than the previous hunt. We hunted hard and Got Paul his first two woodcocks in several years.

Paul Quigley and Steven M. Kendus with Quigley's First Woodcock of the 2011-2012 Season

1/21/2012 – Hunted deer in a snow, sleet, and freezing rain storm. I braved the elements for a morning hunt. While I could take the weather, my bow couldn’t. Ice from the freezing rain encased my bow, quiver, and arrows, so I left the woods by 8:30 AM.

I participated in a doe management hunt on Delaware public land on Monday, December 12.I saw a ton of deer, but came home with none.

For those of you who don’t know, this entire week is an “antlerless only” season, so only non-antlered deer can be legally harvested. Because the invited hunters on the management hunt were targeting mature does, we were encouraged to pass up doe fawns and button bucks. Here’s how my hunt went.

I arrived at my stand location about 1:30 PM. I saw my first deer — a 3-point buck — at 2:20. Around 4:00, two fawns and a mature doe came within 15 yards of me. The fawns presented easy shots, but I never had a clear shot at the big doe. I let them pass.

Around 4:30, I saw 8 deer running across the field that bordered the woods in which I was hunting. They entered the woods about 250 yards from me and made their way to me by 4:45. Now all 8 of these deer were in front of me at 20-30 yards. Wouldn’t you know it? Every one of them was a buck! There was one giant, one smaller shooter buck, and 6 little bucks.

Are you kidding me? I see does during buck season, and bucks during doe season!

Bring on the woodcock!

New Jersey opening day of woodcock from Steven M. Kendus.

It is officially my favorite time of year. The deer rut is on, and woodcock season is open locally.

Opening day of New Jersey’s small game season was yesterday, November 12. While many hunters chose to hunt deer, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to bring my vizsla Gus out for his first woodcock hunt of the season. I arrived at my New Jersey public land woodcock hunting spot around 8:15 AM, and by 8:25, Gus was locked up on a woodcock. With one shot, Gus and I had our first bird of the season. The cover was unbelievably thick, so while Gus was pointing birds, I just couldn’t get to them before the birds flew. Or, they would fly low, giving me no good shot through the thick brush. After about 8 points from Gus, I managed to harvest my limit of three woodcocks. Check out the photo.

After my harvest my woodcock limit, I switched to steel shot and tried my luck for snipe at another spot. The field where I normally find snipe was bone dry, so it didn’t produce any.

I arrived home in Delaware around 1 PM and hit the deer woods by 2:30 PM. I made a mock scrape several days ago, and I placed a tarsal gland in a bush. By 4:45 PM, I noticed a buck walking toward me. At first glance, I figured he was a basket rack 8-pointer. Being early in the season, he was a borderline shooter for me, but I clipped my release onto my bowstring just in case. (I was hunting with my bow, even though the Delaware shotgun season is open.) The buck was sticking his nose to the sky smelling the tarsal scent, and he began walking right to me. He stopped to lick several branches on the way, and he gave me a perfect view of him. His right antler was broken off near the base.

Not wanting to shoot this buck (he would have been small even with both antlers), I gave him a pass at 20 yards, 10 yards, and 5 yards. He never knew I was in my stand, so that was a benefit. I figure he lost that antler in a fight with a bigger buck, so I will try that spot again soon.

*** UPDATE – 11/13 ***

Damn. I was out checking a trail camera today, stepped awkwardly on a pine cone, and rolled my ankle. I have a tennis ball size knot on my ankle that I have been icing for four hours. What a time for this to happen! I will continue to ice and hope for the best!

With so many things going on in everyday life, I sometimes overlook posting my hunting updates to HuntingTheFirstState.com. I haven’t hunted as much as I would have liked, but I do have some interesting updates. See below.

Duck Hunt – 10/28 – My friend Dave and I hunted ducks this morning on a nice little pond near the Delaware River. Today was a ‘blue bird’ day, but since it was sandwiched between moderate rain yesterday and a nor’easter tomorrow, we tried our luck. We finished setting out the decoys around 6AM, and waited until shooting time around 7AM. I figured ducks would fly early, and they did. Within minutes of legal shooting time, hunters were shooting all around us. We had some shots at few ducks, but we left empty handed around 8:30 AM (since I had to work).

Duck Hunt – 10/24 – Dave and I hunted another pond near the Delaware River. We bagged a mallard and a wood duck before calling it quits around 8:30 AM.

Duck Hunt – 10/22 – Afternoon – I tried a little duck hunting spot in southern New Castle County and had shots at a pair of wood ducks. I bagged the beautiful drake pictured below.

Delaware Wood Duck 2011

Deer Hunt – 10/22 – Morning -  I took one of my daughters deer hunting in the morning. We thought we had a good chance at a deer until all hell broke loose at first light. Today was the opening Saturday of the first Delaware duck season split. It sounded like a war zone. After 2 hours, we left the deer stand. My daughter opted to hunt squirrels instead. She shot one gray squirrel.

Deer Hunt – 10/15 – Afternoon – I was running late and arrived at my Delaware muzzleloader hunting spot at 5:30 PM. I quickly changed and entered the woods at 5:40 PM. As I walked to my stand, 3 does walked across the path in front of me. I dropped one with my Thompson Center Encore at 5:50. Sometimes things just work out! I was thankful for the nice doe for the freezer.

Deer Hunt – 10/15 – Morning – I went to a bowhunting spot before first light. I hunted for an hour and had one little doe behind me. A construction crew showed up near by, so the noise ended my hunt.

Here is my article that ran in Thursday’s News Journal.

For those of you who follow me on HuntingTheFirstState.com, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, you were treated to a multimedia barrage last Saturday that showed and described my multiple encounters with fawns.

With my bow in one hand and my iPhone in the other, I couldn’t help but capture the day’s events on video.

My predawn arrival in the woods was nearly silenced by the wet ground beneath my boots, so I was able to creep deep into the woods without being heard by the ever-alert ears of deer.

As blue daylight began filtering through the trees, three deer walked about 80 yards from me. Hunting from the ground, I moved toward them, using the low light, chirping crickets, and buzzing mosquitoes to mask my movement. Although I fooled the deer’s eyes and ears, I couldn’t quite fool their noses. One doe caught my scent and blew, just before all three bounded away.

Hoping more deer would move through the small oak grove, I trusted my bright green camouflage and backed myself into some poke bushes. As the sun rose, I saw movement to my right. I thought the slight flicker was a rabbit or squirrel, but then I saw two big ears and two black eyes staring at me. Just 20 yards away was a relatively recently born fawn, curled up in the poke bushes like a lapdog, with its head barely higher than my knee.

I turned to walk away, but the fawn was intrigued and naive enough to stand up and walk with me. Rather than lead the fawn away from where its mother left it, I stopped and tried to shoo it away. I think it mistook my flailing hands for the flicking tail of a deer, and it just stood and stared at me. So I began filming. And tweeting. And posting videos to Facebook and YouTube.

Then I noticed two more fawns walking up behind me.

Now I have been known to spin a yarn or two, but believe me when I tell you that one of these other fawns was going to walk right into me. It didn’t see me camouflaged against the bushes, so I had to shoo this one away before its head plowed into my hip. While this fawn and its friend still had white spots on their tan coats, they were considerably larger than the little one standing behind me. Their natural instincts were more in tune than the little one’s, and they bounded away a bit before stopping to check me out. I filmed the two newcomers before they ran off in the direction from which they came. Astounded, I turned the iPhone’s camera to the first fawn and watched it walk back to the bushes and bed down.

I watched for more than an hour as the fawn slept, nibbled leaves, stood up, circled, and slept some more. When I saw the fawn’s head down, I snuck away.

Beating the early season heat, I left the woods at 9:30 a.m. and returned around 4:30 p.m. for an afternoon hunt. Thinking for sure the fawn would be gone after seven hours, I returned to my morning spot. As I backed myself into the poke bushes, the nearly invisible fawn stood up from its hiding spot and stared at me again. I quickly grabbed my iPhone and filmed the fawn as it walked directly to me. When the fawn was within 6 feet of me, it shook its head, stomped a few times, and returned to its hiding spot.

Though fascinated, I again managed to sneak away, staying just close enough to keep an eye on the fawn’s hiding spot. As I suspected (and as I had hoped), mom returned for her fawn — albeit 13 hours after she left her. Around 7 p.m., I saw the fawn stand up, and I heard it bleat multiple times. A slender doe cautiously walked in behind the fawn, and both walked away together.

Not one arrow left my quiver last Saturday. Not one buck crossed my path. But I had one of my best hunts.

I know some are questioning my last statement and are struggling with the false dichotomy between hunting and nature loving, but rest assured that my love for nature is what fuels my passion for conservation through legal, properly regulated hunting.

Here’s another video of the fawn that walked up to me while bowhunting in Delaware on Saturday 9/10. Cool stuff!

I was in the Delaware deer woods by 5:15 AM today, and I was glad I opted for an early hunt. While I didn’t harvest a deer, I had multiple opportunities.

I jumped a small buck and a couple mature does as the sun was coming up, but I had no shot with my bow. I set up on the ground and noticed a fawn walking to me. My bright green camo worked superbly, and the fawn never saw me. It ended up bedding down directly behind me.

About 30 minutes later, two more fawns walked right to me. Seriously, one came within 5 yards of me. It never saw me until I reached for my iPhone. Check out the video.

I just pulled my memory card from one of my suburban game cameras near Middletown, Delaware. Out of 22 photos, only two of them showed deer near my stand during legal hunting hours.

This big boy came through around 2:30 AM.

Hunting The First State Suburban Buck on Game Camera

In desperate need of some down time, I spent four hours of my Saturday reading The Hunt (216 pages, AuthorHouse, ISBN-13: 978-14520123, $14.99) by David Francis. While the novel presents an engaging story about an aging hunter’s pursuit of the whitetail king of Jenkins Mountain, it provides an emotional look into the one obstacle that no hunter can overcome.

Francis uses his knowledge of the outdoors and his keen descriptions to take us back to a time when hunting was more pure and simple, and he deftly captures the heart-pounding thrill of the hunt that continues to drive any outdoorsman who pursues trophy whitetail deer. Through the aging veteran hunter Elmer’s reflections and actions, Francis shows how hunting profoundly affects individuals, families, and communities, and shows how deep hunting values, traditions, and passions run.

The Hunt provides colorful detail of Elmer’s past and present whitetail deer hunts, but it gives the reader insight into a much more profound hunt, one in which Elmer is searching for peace and closure.  With trigger-pulling, hard-hitting, buck-fighting action and soul-searching, tear-jerking, introspective sentimentality, The Hunt kept me thoroughly entertained.

The Hunt is available in paperback at various booksellers, including authorhouse.com, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

Find out more about David Francis at http://davidfrancis.posterous.com.

According to the DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife, Delaware hunters harvested 14,183 deer during the 2010-11 season. The total harvest was more than 14 percent higher than the 2009-10 season and ranks as the third highest harvest all time. Good hunting weather during the October muzzleloader and November shotgun seasons contributed to the high harvest numbers.

“Unlike last season, we did not experience any major negative weather events during any of our productive deer seasons, which resulted in an overall increase in the harvest this past season,” said Joe Rogerson, deer and furbearer biologist with the DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife.  “The seasons impacted by weather during the 2009-10 season were the October muzzleloader and November shotgun seasons and the harvest this past year was up considerably during these two seasons but relatively stable during the other seasons.  This clearly shows that the nor’easters were a primary cause of the harvest decline during the 2009-10 season.”

Of the total harvest, 28.1 percent were antlered deer and 71.8 percent were antlerless. Fifty-three and half percent were female deer and 46.5 percent were males.

2010-11 marked the first time that hunters could use crossbows to harvest deer from Sept. 1, 2010 through Jan. 31, 2011 within the newly created crossbow season.

“Although the season was new, Delaware hunters still managed to harvest 398 deer during the crossbow season, compared to 1,400 during the traditional archery season,” said Rogerson. “When the harvest from the two seasons was combined, 1,798 deer were harvested which ranks as the all-time highest harvest for archery equipment, 116 more deer compared to the previous high of 1,682 deer taken during the 2008-09 archery season.”