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.

Gus pointed and retrieved 36 birds on a stocked pheasant and chukar hunt

I know many of you count on reading my hunting updates to give you ideas of how things are going in the Delaware woods, fields, and waterways, but I also record my hunts on HuntingTheFirstState.com so I have a record to refer back to in future seasons. As usual at this time of year, I forget to record info about my hunts on this site.

However, I make sure I jot down hunting notes on scraps of paper and post them around my office so I can record them later. Here are my quick notes about my various woodcock, pheasant, duck, and deer hunts over the past several weeks.

11/17 New Jersey Woodcock and Snipe Hunt – I headed to New Jersey public land with my vizsla Gus to hunt woodcocks and snipes before work. Gus pointed and flushed several woodcock in one public hunting field, but I just couldn’t get shots through the thick brush. I then went to another public location that typically holds snipes. Gus and I found no snipes, but I somehow managed to lose the controller to Gus’ e-collar from my lanyard. I spent 40 minutes walking the field until I found it.

11/19 New Jersey Woodcock Hunt – I hunted woodcock on New Jersey public ground with daughter, my friend John, and his son. Gus pointed about 7 birds. John shot 2, and I shot 1. Again the cover was so thick in areas that we couldn’t get good shots.

11/21 Delaware Duck Hunt – I hunted a private Delaware pond with my friend Bill on Monday 11/21. The fog was extremely dense around first light, so we couldn’t see birds, and I am sure they couldn’t see our pond, let alone our decoys. We heard some shooting, and after about 90 minutes, a pair of wood ducks buzzed our blind. They flew over our heads, and we lost sight of them. About 20 seconds later, the two wood ducks dropped in from my left on the edge of the wood line. I fired at the lead duck, and ended up dropping both with one shot. Not wanting to push my luck, I packed up and headed to work.

11/24 Delaware Deer Hunt – I bowhunted deer on Thanksgiving morning in North Wilmington and saw nothing.

11/25 Delaware Woodcock Hunt – I brought my neighbor’s 22-year old son Sean on his first woodcock on Friday 11/25. Gus pointed several birds, and Sean got a couple shots that were close misses. I bagged one woodcock.

11/25 Delaware Deer Hunt – I hunted deer with my bow in North Wilmington. Saw nothing but 2 red foxes.

11/26 Stocked Pheasant and Chukar Hunt (with bonus woodcock) – My daughter, six others, and I hunted stocked pheasant and chukars over Gus. Gus had his best day of all time. He pointed and retrieved 36 birds (yes, 36), and got every hunter a limit. After the stocked bird hunt, my daughter, my friend Bill, Bill’s son, and I drove to a Delaware public hunting spot for a quick woodcock hunt. I arrived later in the day than normal, and the birds moved to the edge of the woods and into think briars. Gus pointed two woodcocks, and we harvested one.

11/26 Delaware Deer Hunt – Went to Greenville with the bow. Six does came into the meadow about 10 minutes before the end of shooting time, but none came closer than 100 yards.

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.

With deer seasons upon us, DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife is reminding hunters that there is a new toll-free phone number and web site address to access the deer registration system. This phone and internet system is also required to obtain a Harvest Information Program (HIP) Number, a License Exempt Number (LEN) and a Snow Goose Conservation Order Permit Number.

The new toll-free number to access this system is 1-855-335-4868 (1-855-DELHUNT).  The new web address is www.dnrec.delaware.gov/delhunt.  A customer service number, 302-735-3600, has also been established to help hunters with questions about the system.

“We need to remind hunters of this phone number and website change because many have stored the old number  among their ”favorites” on their phone and computer,” said Rob Hossler, Game Species Program Manager. “The requirements for hunters are otherwise similar to previous years although we have tried to improve the system to make it more user-friendly,” he added.

• Similar to last year, all successful deer hunters must register their deer within 24 hours of harvest. Using the phone and internet system, hunters will be asked a series of questions after which they will be given a deer harvest registration number. This number will serve as proof the animal was properly checked and should be kept for the hunter’s records and written in ink on the deer tag for the animal harvested. Hunters who take their deer to a butcher shop or taxidermist also will need to supply this number to the shop owner as proof the deer was registered.

• Hunters and trappers who are exempt from purchasing a license are required to obtain a license ex­empt number (LEN) from the Division at no cost. This number, also known as the hunter identification number (HIN), must be obtained annually and used whenever a hunter is asked for a license number, such as for registering a deer. If a license-exempt hunter chooses to purchase a license anyway, they are not required to obtain a LEN number. The LEN system was created so that game harvest and opinions of license-exempt hunters and trappers could be evaluated and considered when establishing new stat­utes, regulations and policies.

• As in previous years, for the 2011-2012 season Delaware migratory bird hunters must obtain a HIP number as required under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Harvest Information Program. To get the number using the phone and internet system, hunters will be asked to provide name and address, and answer a few ques­tions about their previous year’s hunting effort and success with migratory birds, including ducks, geese, doves, woodcock, rails, snipe and coots. This number is available free of charge.

• Hunters interested in participating in the 2012 Snow Goose Conservation Order (CO) must have a valid Delaware or Maryland hunting license, a 2011 Delaware waterfowl stamp (Federal stamp not required), a Delaware HIP number and the free CO permit issued by the Division. This permit can be obtained, after Jan. 1, 2012, by computer registration at www.dnrec.delaware.gov/del­hunt. This permit is available free of charge.

For questions about the hunter registration system, visit the website or call the customer service number at 302-735-3600.

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

(From my September 1, 2011 News Journal hunting column.)

Enduring Hurricane Irene this past weekend afforded me ample opportunity to consider my hunting options in preparation for today, the opening day of deer (archery), mourning dove and resident Canada goose hunting seasons in Delaware.

For as long as I can remember, bowhunting deer monopolized my Sept. 1 schedule and continued into the first few weeks of the month. This year, however, I am switching things up a bit. Rather than climbing in a tree stand or creeping through the Delaware woods in pursuit of white-tailed deer in early September, I am going to hunt mourning doves.

Traditionally regarded as a communal, celebratory event that marks the transition of summer to fall and celebrates the upcoming harvest, the opening day of dove hunting season is circled on many hunters’ calendars. In many communities and hunt clubs, festive events — including barbecues, pig roasts, and crab feasts — are held after opening day dove hunts, and the celebrations are open to hunters and non-hunters alike. With dove hunting traditions so strong throughout the United States, I think it’s time for more of us to get involved in order to preserve these traditions.

Mourning doves are recognized as the most widespread game bird in North America, and they are found just about everywhere in Delaware. They inhabit urban, suburban and rural areas, and can be found nesting, feeding or roosting near woods, farms, backyards and city buildings. Doves eat mostly seeds, and they prefer some types of seeds over others. Throughout Delaware, they usually eat the seeds of grasses, sweet gum and smartweed, millet, safflower and sunflower, and agricultural crops, such as corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum. Delaware doves are so attracted to sunflower seeds, in fact, that the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife plants sunflower fields at specific public hunting areas and designates the fields as dove hunting areas.

When pursuing Delaware doves, maximize your harvest chances by observing the doves’ feeding habits in the areas you plan to hunt. Doves usually feed early in the day, so they will leave their roosts in the morning in search of feeding areas. Set up in a tree line on the edge of a field where the doves will feed, and wait them out. Be sure to set up in a location where you will be presented with good shots as the doves fly to or from the field. Keep in mind their flight angles, and try to set up where the birds will be swooping down or taking flight so that they are within effective range.

While doves can probably be found on almost every Delaware public hunting area, consider hunting those public locations that are specifically managed for doves. Some public hunting areas that include managed dove fields are: the Rocks, Guestford and Bell tracts of Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area in New Castle County; Blackiston and Milford Neck Wildlife Areas in Kent County; and the Muddy Neck Tract of Assawoman Wildlife Area in Sussex County. Be aware that some Delaware public hunting areas have specific hours and regulations for dove hunting, and also note that nontoxic shot must be used for all dove hunting on Delaware state wildlife areas during the month of September.

A word of advice for novice dove hunters: Doves fly quickly and erratically and make for extremely challenging shooting. Some experts say that two doves for every five shots is good, so if you plan to harvest your limit, bring plenty of shells.