Passport to Texas

Cedar Hill State Park

Recreation: Day One Trail Run Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You know about first day hikes; it’s where people spend the first day of the New Year hiking the trails in state parks nationwide. If you’d rather pick up the pace, then Cedar Hill State Park’s Day One Trail Run is for you.

09—The Day One Trail Run is our way of taking the first day hikes that America’s state parks has done every year for a while now to the next level.

Jeff Achée [uh-SHAY], from Cedar Hill SP, is helping to coordinate the event, which includes 20K and 5K races.

31—We have got a 3, and 8, and 12 mile hike and bike loop here. And it’s run by DORBA, which is the Dallas Off Road Biking Association. So, what we’re going to do is have the 5K run the 3-mile loop, and the 20K is going to run the 12-mile loop. And there’ll be some going in and out of the access roads and things like that so we can get some aid stations in there. But basically, our park is set up perfectly for these two distances. They’re going to go through the woods; they’re going to go on the lakeside prairies of the park. It’s just going to be an awesome race.

Early registration for the Day One Trail Run at Cedar Hill SP has already begun. Find details and registration fee information at Day One Trail Run dot com.

We’ll have more about this race tomorrow.

That’s our show for today… Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Backyard Birding

Birding: Winter Birds in the Backyard Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You don’t have to travel to the Rio Grande Valley to log some respectable bird watching this winter, says TPW non game ornithologist, Cliff Shackelford.

10— We have the wildlife viewing trails all across Texas. These are hot spots that you can find easily that might be close to you or near where you’re going. And they’re available for people to go an look at birds [and other wildlife].

Find the wildlife viewing maps on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website. Cliff Shackelford, a non-game ornithologist for Parks and Wildlife, says Texans can plan a birding “staycation” with a little planning.

30— You can attract a lot of winter birds to your backyard. You can do something as simple as putting out a bird feeder and a birdbath. Or better, creating a wildscape, which is gardening for backyard wildlife. And we do that in our yard and we get so many white-throated sparrows that stay the winter with us because we have provided them with the cover that they need. We have a lot of berry giving shrubs, so we get a lot of cedar waxwings, and American Robins wintering with us. So, you can attract a lot of things in your backyard and have a really good time.

Find birding information and the wildlife viewing trail maps on the Parks and Wildlife website.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Birding in Weslaco in the Rio Grande Valley

Birding: Best Winter Bird Watching in Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Birders who are in the know travel to south Texas in winter.

10— Wow. The Mecca down there is The Valley. And the three or four counties along the Rio Grande are just the powerhouse for winter birding in Texas.

Cliff Shackelford is a non-game ornithologist for Parks and Wildlife.

30— Birdwatchers from all over the country – really all over the world – are going there to see birds that are stacked up and wintering in big number, because it’s very mild down there. Cold snaps are very unusual and that’s why there’s a lot of agriculture – like citrus that doesn’t handle freezes very well at all. But, where there is remaining thorn scrub habitat or riparian woodland, that can be just really excellent birding in the wintertime.

Shackelford says while the Rio Grande Valley is, as he said “the mecca” when it comes to sheer volume and varieties of overwintering migratory species in Texas – the valley isn’t not the only place to see a variety of migratory birds.

More on that tomorrow.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Green Jay

Birding: Winter Migrants in Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Texas is a birder’s paradise in winter, and TPW non-game ornithologist, Cliff Shackelford knows why:

15— We are on the receiving end for a lot of our continent’s breeding birds that have to winter in mild climates; water birds that can’t handle water that freezes over – and we don’t have a lot of that in Texas especially the farther south you get.

Migratory species begin flocking to Texas in fall, and become our winter birds.

37— In the fall we get a lot of shorebirds we don’t see in the summer months that have bred up in the tundra. Then come your woodland birds – a lot of the vireos, warblers, tanagers… start pouring through in October. A lot of the raptors [that don’t stay, they only pass through]; things like Broad-wing Hawks, Swaisnon’s Hawks, Mississippi Kites –they’re pouring through up until October. Then the sparrows really pour in starting in October and November. So, really by mid-November, most things are in place – where they’re going to be – for the next several months.

We tell you where to find some of these migrants on tomorrow’s show.

That’s our show for today… Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

White Nose Syndrome, Photo: USFWS

Wildlife: White Nose Syndrome in Bats Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Texas boasts healthy bat populations. Bats living in other parts of the country are not as lucky due to something called:

02— Pseudogymnoascus destructans.

Commonly called White Nose Syndrome, the disease, caused by a fungus—which originated in Europe—first appeared in a cave in New York in 2006. Bat biologist, Tara Poloskey.

19— What happens is it grows on the bat during hibernation when they aren’t cleaning themselves. And then it makes them wake up; every time a bat wakes up in hibernation, they use valuable resources. And they only have a certain amount of fat reserves to get them through the winter. And so it keeps waking them up until they eventually starve. Or they are so dehydrated that they die.

The disease has killed an estimated 6-million bats in the US. Reported in both Oklahoma and Arkansas, White Nose Syndrome is on Texas’ doorstep.

12— This winter, Texas Parks and Wildlife will be doing surveys in Texas for White Nose, and really cranking up our White Nose monitoring and education, and really trying to spread the word about it.

We have tips for preventing spread of White Nose fungus at www.passportotexas.org.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series, and funds diverse conservation projects in Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.