Passport to Texas

Birdwatching in Texas

Birding: Great Texas Birding Classic Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What started 17 years ago as a way for Texas Parks and Wildlife to promote its Coastal Birding Trails and fund conservation projects, the Great Texas Birding Classic has since become one of the country’s premier birding tournaments.

08—The birding classic allows you to test your skills and see how you rank against other birders here, in one of the best birding locations in the world.

Shelly Plante oversees nature tourism for the agency. Once held exclusively along the Texas coast, this year the tournament is statewide.

07—You can now go in your backyard; you can go down the street to your favorite park; you can travel wherever you wanted, and you can do this anywhere.

The Birding classic has also expanded the date range.

29—For the first time ever, we’re having a very long range of dates for the tournament: from April 15th through May 15th. You get to pick what day you participate. You can pick that based on the weather, on your team’s schedules –whatever works for you. In the past we designated specific days for a tournament, and everybody had to compete on those specific days regardless of weather. Well, now, you can watch weather patterns. And if there’s affront that going to ground some birds and make it a great day for birding, you can go out on that day.

More in the Birding Classic tomorrow.

That’s our show for today…with support from the Wildlife and Sport fish Restoration Program…providing funding for a variety of conservation projects throughout Texas.

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

Tufted Titmouse from allaboutbirds.org

Wildlife: Backyard Birds Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Whatever your age or skill level, birding is a simple and satisfying way to engage the outdoors.

09— You know, [it’s] just having the reason to go outside and observe…. Getting out there and looking beyond yourself, I think, provides perspective, and is fulfilling in itself.

Cullen Hanks is an avid birder and administrator of the Texas Natural Diversity Database for Parks and Wildlife.

07—And I’ve connected with birds on many levels; one is just watching and getting a little bit of perspective of the drama in their lives.

And, February 15 – 18, when you witness the drama unfold in your own backyard, share your data with the Great Backyard Bird Count.

37—I haven’t participated specifically in the backyard bird count. However, I do contribute observations and checklists to eBird, which is collaborating with the Great Backyard Bird Count. Why do you feel it’s important to share what you’ve seen in your own backyard? One of the primary reasons, is there’s value in itself in going out and paying attention and creating these lists. And, the eBird interface, and the Great Backyard Bird Count are great ways to do that. In addition, contributing that data, gives us another lens on how to understand how bird populations are changing.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is co sponsored by Audubon and the Cornell Lab or Ornithology Find more information at www.birdcount.org.

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

Cedar Waxwing: Ben Thomas, Georgia

Birding: Great Backyard Bird Count Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Birds indicate the health of our environment, says Pat Leonard, who coordinates the Great Backyard Bird Count for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a joint project with the Audubon Society and Bird Studies Canada.

07— And, so, by understanding what’s happening to them – both good and bad –we have a measure of what we should be doing to preserve the environment.

The bird count, in its sixteenth year, is a citizen science project where birders around the world tally species not only in backyards, but anywhere there are birds—and then report their findings online.

17—What we’re going to do for the 2013 count, is integrating it with another big online bird checklist program we run with Audubon called eBird. What that will allow us to do is have much more valuable data, because the locations that people put in for their birding activity is much more precise.

Birders must register with the website bird count dot org to input their findings. Researchers use the data to study the various species and their habitat. And Pat says Texas participation is high.

18— Texas is such a birdy state. And in the count we had for 2012, it was number two after California for the most species. Corpus Christi was actually number one in terms of localities reporting the most species. They had 184. You can’t say birds, bird count, and leave Texas out of the equation.

Go to bird count dot org for more information about the Great Backyard Bird Count, February 15 -18.

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

Image courtesy of Lois Miller © Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Birding: Cornell Lab of Ornithology Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Winter is a great time for birding in Texas, and much of what we know about birds comes from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York. It’s a world leader in the study, appreciation, and conservation of birds.

06— We are a part of Cornell University, but we are also a semi-independent unit of the university.

Pat Leonard works at the lab, which she says is also a nonprofit membership organization with 45-thousand members nationwide supporting their work.

12—So, there’s that outreach to the public side, but then we’re also a research institution. We have people here studying feeder birds, we’re studying specific species, bird biology, bird behavior, bird sounds…

Here’s where it gets interesting. In addition to studying birds, Pat says the Cornell lab of Ornithology also studies whales and elephants.

26—Because of our interest in sounds and communication of animals, we develop a lot of high tech tools for gathering and recording sounds that can be studied later. Some of those devices are used on land to capture bird sounds and to track migration, for example. But we also have devices that we put under the
ocean to track whales, particularly the highly endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, and then we also put them out to track forest elephants in Africa.

While the Lab’s research may seem broad, Pat Leonard says it always comes back to biodiversity and preserving places for these types of animals to continue to survive.

Tomorrow: a citizen science project that’s for the birds.

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

Birders at Blind, image © John W. Liston

State Parks: World Birding Center Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Winter is one of the best times for birders to visit the World Birding Center in the Rio Grande Valley. Our state park guide Bryan Frazier says this sub tropical region boasts myriad species that you won’t see at any other place or time of year in Texas.

58— You’ve got about 500 species of birds that either reside there, or travel through there and spend some time there. And winter months, particularly in January, is about the best time to see most of them. And we’re talking about everything from birds of prey like Swainson’s hawks and falcons, to colorful sub tropic species like Altamira orioles and groove billed Anis. And Green jays – just spectacularly colored birds that draw people from all over. These are one of the few places you can see them – and one of the only places in Texas where you can see them. And, wintertime, in general, is the best time to go down there. Head to the Rio Grande Valley, and you can visit Estero Llano Grande SP in Weslaco, Resaca de la Palma SP, just outside of Brownsville, and
Bentsen Rio Grande Valley SP…the food and the culture there in South Texas is rich and diverse and unique. And the birding opportunities are second to none.

Thanks, Bryan.

That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet, supporting outdoor recreation in Texas; because there’s life to be done.

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