Passport to Texas

Bill Baker and Andy Dietrich, accepting the 2015 Statewide Weeklong Tournament winners trophy for the NRG Eco-eagles.

The Real Winners of the Birding Classic: Birds Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

For the past 20 years, the Great Texas Birding Classic has been the world’s biggest, longest, and wildest birdwatching tournament in the U.S.!

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would do it for 20 straight years.

Bill Baker’s been participating in the Classic since the beginning, even though he says his team was an embarrassment their first time out.

Over the years Bill’s team improved—a lot. And the NRG Eco-Eagles won the Week Long tournament 8 times, came in second one year and third another year for total winnings of just over $170K, which went toward avian habitat enhancement.

Texas has such diverse habitats, and such diverse birds. One of our team members lives in Pennsylvania. And the highlight of his year is coming down here, traveling Texas, to get to see the different species of birds that we have throughout the regions of Texas. We are blessed to have such habitat in our great state.

Bill’s passionate about the Classic, and thinks you can be, too.

If you’ve never participated in this event, it will change your life. It’s exciting. It’s fun. You do this with friends. You learn. It contributes to enhancing avian habitat in the great state of Texas.

The Great Texas Birding Classic gets underway April 15. Registration for this year has ended, but keep up with the action at birdingclassic.org, and start planning for next year.

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