Indiana deer hunters bagged fewer deer during the 2011 season than the year before, but the 129,018 total was still the fourth-best season on record, according to a report from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Fish & Wildlife.

The total represented a 3.7 percent drop from the all-time record harvest of 134,004 in 2010. In the 60-year history of the state’s modern deer hunting era, hunters have bagged almost 3 million deer.

“It becomes somewhat predictable that the harvest would fall in line close to where it has the past couple of years,” said Chad Stewart, deer management biologist for the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife. “It appears in some areas the deer population is in fact down, but those areas aren’t many. Overall, the deer herd is thriving in our state.”

The 2011 statewide harvest was still almost 5,500 deer above the 10-year average, and 64 counties registered totals higher than their 10-year annual averages.

“Though there are always a lot of complaints that come across my desk during and immediately after deer season from hunters who are not seeing the numbers they typically see, the decline of the Indiana deer herd is greatly exaggerated,” Stewart said. “Local populations in some areas may be down, but the state’s herd is overall abundant and healthy.”

Fourteen counties had record harvests: Boone (460), Crawford (1,925), Decatur (727), Floyd (712), Jennings (1,962), Marion (329), Montgomery (1,204), Randolph (667), Shelby (396), Sullivan (1,917), Vermillion (1,380), Vigo (1,507), Wabash (1,798), and White (1,233). It was the third straight record year for Boone and Sullivan, and the second straight for Jennings, Montgomery, Randolph, Shelby and Wabash.

Steuben County led the state for the seventh straight year with 3,532 deer reported. Switzerland County was second with 3,309, followed by Kosciusko (3,123), Noble (3,025), Dearborn (2,885), Franklin (2,876), Harrison (2,680), Washington (2,605), Parke (2,561) and LaGrange (2,523).

The deer hunting season began in urban zones on Sept. 15, followed by a two-day youth only weekend (Sept. 24-25) and then the early archery (Oct. 1-Nov. 27), firearm (Nov. 12-27), muzzleloader (Dec. 4-19) and late archery (Dec. 3-Jan. 1).

Hunters using muzzleloaders logged their third consecutive record year by bagging 33,571 deer in either the firearm or muzzleloader segments, including a record 19,235 in the muzzleloader segment. The increase was significant at 10.5 percent over the 2010 muzzleloader segment.

Hunters also harvested 79,717 deer in the firearm segment (down 7.5 percent from 2010); 26,021 in early archery (down 1 percent); 1,726 in late archery (up 2.5 percent); and 2,319 in the youth season (down 0.8 percent). The early archery total includes deer taken in urban deer zones.

Weather may have been a factor in the lower overall harvest. 

The Indiana State Climate Office reported above normal temperatures 21 days in November 2011, with eight of the days being 10 degrees or more above normal, making it the ninth warmest November since 1895. It was also the third wettest November in history and the wettest in the past 26 years.

“Both of those can have an effect on not only deer movement in November but also hunter participation,” Stewart said. “It’s certainly one potential reasonable explanation for the smaller harvest during firearm season, which contributes a great deal to the overall harvest, but it’s impossible to say if the decreased harvest is a function of smaller deer populations in some areas or weather factors keeping hunters and deer at bay.”

Hunters purchased 276,398 deer licenses in 2011, the most since the DNR began its computerized point-of-sale license system in 2006. It was a 3 percent increase from 2010 (268,485 licenses). All categories showed increases from 2010, led by military/refuge licenses at 23.5 percent and muzzleloader 9 percent, plus a 5 percent increase in youth licenses.

“Indiana seems to be somewhat of an exception to the norm in that our hunters continue to come out and participate in hunting,” Stewart said. “This can’t be said for many other states that are seeing alarming declines in their hunter numbers.

“Whether it is the tradition that is ingrained in Indiana hunters or benefits seen from an emphasis on recruiting and retaining hunters within the state is hard to say, but something is working, and that is positive.”

Lake Monroe osprey nesting platform

At Fairfax State Recreation Area, a brand-new, high-rise home with a penthouse view of Lake Monroe awaits its first tenant. The residence, a 4-by-4 nesting platform on top of a 60-foot pole, was designed with the osprey market in mind, located at the end of a narrow, wooded peninsula with access to plenty of fish. South Central Indiana REMC erected the nesting platform and two nearby 40-foot perching platforms back in August through its Energy for Wildlife program, which enhances animal habitat in the company’s seven-county service area.

The platform would appeal to a pair of young ospreys, probably 3 to 4 years old, who are entering the breeding period of their lives and looking to establish their nesting territory, according to Indiana Department of Natural Resources nongame bird biologist John Castrale.

“It’s certainly an excellent area for osprey,” Castrale said.

Man-made platforms are necessary in areas where existing trees do not provide the height and seclusion ospreys need to nest. The structures are just one element in DNR’s plan to restore osprey populations. Osprey numbers declined rapidly in the mid-20th century due to widespread use of the pesticide DDT, which has since been banned. By the 1980s, no nesting pairs of ospreys were known to exist in Indiana.

Between 2003 and 2006 the state released 94 ospreys from coastal Virginia at four locations across Indiana. 

The species is regaining its footing; and Indiana is now home to about 40 nesting osprey pairs, mostly along the St. Joseph and Pigeon rivers in northern Indiana and Patoka and Brookville lakes in southern Indiana.

“Right now they are a state endangered species,” Castrale said. “Our goal to get them off the list is to have 50 pairs for at least three years.”

While eight bald eagle pairs nest along Lake Monroe, ospreys have yet to take up residence there.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments can contact Spaulding by e-mail at jackspaulding@hughes.net or by writing to him in care of this publication.