Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

The brown-headed cowbird migrated with bison across the Great Plains. Because it’s hard to raise a family on the road, cowbirds laid their eggs in other nests; host birds unwittingly raised their young.

The problem with the cowbird eggs is that normally they’re big eggs; they hatch earlier than the host eggs do; and they’re very vocal and hungry and beg for food.

Biologist, Marsha May, says the cowbird hatchlings starve out and kick out the host’s offspring, putting a dent in the population of that species. Back when bison roamed, cowbirds didn’t have quite the same impact.

Black-capped vireos, which are an endangered species now, evolved where if they were parasitized by a brown-headed cowbird, they would leave that nest and re-nest – start a new nest. Well, if the cowbirds had already moved through, that would have worked.

Without bison, cowbirds hang with cows. Because cows are fenced in and don’t migrate, neither do cowbirds.

They’re parasitizing all the birds in that area – their nests – and they’re having a major impact on some species like the black capped vireo, because the black-capped vireo keeps re-nesting and that’s wasting a lot of energy, and if it’s constantly being parasitized, then no young will be reproduced at all that year.

We’ll have more on cowbirds tomorrow.

That’s our show… we receive support from the Wildlife restoration Program… funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuels.

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

Brown-headed Cowbird, Part 1 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

[Woody Woodpecker laughter]

Woodpecker damage to your home is no laughing matter.

As a rule woodpeckers excavate cavities in dead trees called snags, which they live in. The exception is when they mistake dark colored, or cedar house siding, for a snag and end up leaving a trail of destruction.

And it looks like cannon balls have been shot through the house. Maybe two or three; and we’ve seen some with fifteen, sixteen holes.

Cliff Shackelford is a non-game ornithologist. He says woodpecker damage occurs most often in urban and suburban areas where the dead wood has been removed.

What we recommend people to do with problems with woodpeckers is to put a nest box. If you’re familiar with a bluebird box, it’s just a larger version of that custom made for woodpeckers.

Visit passporttotexas.org for a link to free blueprints to make your own woodpecker nest box.

People can build this in a couple of hours on the weekend, and put it up on the side of the house, and in all cases that we’ve done this – it’s worked. And the woodpecker stops chiseling on the home, and goes to this next box, and is very content.

That’s our show for today… Remember: Life’s Better Outside…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
____________________________________________________________________

Click on this link to take you to woodpecker house plans.
You will need Adobe Reader, http://www.adobe.com/, to view the document.

Woodpecker Damage -- One Solution Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

If you live in East Texas, and have noticed strange holes in the wood siding of your home… don’t call the police; call an ornithologist.

There are fifteen species of woodpeckers in Texas, eight of which are in the eastern third of Texas. And that’s where we get most of our calls of woodpecker damage.

Non-game ornithologist, Cliff Shackelford, says the pileated and red bellied woodpeckers are among the culprits inflicting the damage to these homes.

What happens a lot of time is that they see these houses that might be painted brown, they might have cedar siding, and this is very attractive to the birds to try to excavate a cavity. So, they’re not looking for food when they’re doing this; they’re looking to make a cavity to call home.

The pileated woodpecker, about the size of a crow, can excavate holes as big as a man’s fist — and not just in the outside walls of your home, either.

That’s right. We’ve documented pileateds going through into the sheetrock and into the room of the house. Of course, they’re very lost when they do that, they quickly go out. They’re not looking to make a mess of the house.

Keeping woodpeckers from damaging your home… [Woodpeckers pecking]…that’s tomorrow.

And that’s our show for today… Remember: Life’s Better Outside…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Woodpecker Damage -- The Problem Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Did a Phoenix rise from the ashes? This month a segment airing on Texas Parks and Wildlife Television chases a ghost. Producer, Abe Moore, explains.

Well, a couple of years ago, the Ivory Billed Woodpecker was thought to have been seen in Arkansas. It was an incredible frenzy.

The whole ornithological community was just electrified by this. The bird had been thought extinct for sixty years.

And now there’s a team here in Texas that spent six months looking for it out in the Big Thicket area in east Texas. So we followed them for six months – went out with them –to look for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.

What was it like for you to see these people in action?

Well, I was amazed at the technology.

Turn the volume [knocks]. Double knocks. [knocks] We use playback to call Ivory-Bills. The idea being the bird will hear its own species call and want to come and check it out.

Well, it’s also a profile on more than just the Ivory-Billed – it’s some of woodpeckers that you find in Texas. The common pileated, which people think is an Ivory Billed Woodpecker because they look similar.

Do you have a new appreciation for this bird?

Absolutely! I love the woodpeckers, and now when I hear them in my neighborhood, I’m like – oh, I know that call.

Will you be teaching your kids about these birds?

I already am. Absolutely. She knows the calls of the Red-bellied in our neighborhood.

Thanks Abe. Visit us online at passporttotexas.org to find a complete listing of stations that air the series.

That’s our show for today…for Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

_______________________________________________________________

Texas Parks and Wildlife on PBS and Cable
Stations and Air Times
Times and dates are subject to change, especially during PBS membership drives.

• Amarillo, KACV-TV, Channel 2: October–March, Saturday 6 p.m.
• Austin, KLRU-TV, Channel 18: Monday, 12:30 p.m.; Friday 5:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m. KLRU2, Cable 20: Tuesday, 11 p.m.
• Bryan-College Station, KAMU-TV, Channel 15: Sunday, 5 p.m.; Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Corpus Christi, KEDT-TV, Channel 16: Sunday, 12 p.m.; Friday, 2 p.m.
• Dallas-Fort Worth, KERA-TV, Channel 13: October–March, Saturday, 6 p.m. Also serving Abilene, Denton, Longview, Marshall, San Angelo, Texarkana, Tyler, Wichita Falls and Sherman.
• El Paso, KCOS-TV, Channel 13: Saturday, 3 p.m.
• Harlingen, KMBH-TV, Channel 60: Sunday, 5 p.m. Also serving McAllen, Mission and Brownsville.
• Houston, KUHT-TV, Channel 8: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.; Friday 1:30 p.m. Also serving Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Texas City and Victoria.
• Killeen, KNCT-TV, Channel 46: Sunday, 5 p.m. Also serving Temple.
• Lubbock, KTXT-TV, Channel 5: Saturday, 10 a.m.
• Odessa-Midland, KPBT-TV, Channel 36: Saturday, 4:30 p.m.
• San Antonio and Laredo, KLRN-TV, Channel 9: Sunday, 1 p.m.
• Waco, KWBU-TV, Channel 34: Saturday, 3 p.m.
• Portales, New Mexico, KENW-TV, Channel 3: Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
• The New York Network, NYN, Thursday 8:30 p.m.; Saturday 2:30 p.m. Serving the Albany area.

Cable

Texas Parks & Wildlife can also be seen on a variety of government, educational and access cable channels in the following communities: Abilene, Allen, Atlanta, Boerne, Collin County Community College, Coppell, Del Mar College, Denton, Flower Mound, Frisco, Garland, Irving, McKinney, North Richland Hills, Plano, Rogers State University, Texarkana College, The Colony, Tyler, Waco and Wichita Falls. Check your local listings for days and times.

TPWD TV -- Chasing a Ghost Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program

Whooping cranes are coming back to Texas.

Whooping cranes generally start arriving in Texas around mid-October or so; and by mid-November, most of them have reached the Texas coast. In the area in and around the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, just north of Rockport.

Lee Ann Linam is a biologist with Parks and Wildlife.

In the 1940s, the Texas population of whooping cranes was about fifteen or sixteen birds. Last winter we had two hundred and thirty six in the population that came down to Texas. So it’s been a slow but sure success story for whooping cranes.

Linam says they hope to see that number jump to two hundred fifty this season. Texans between Dallas-Fort Worth and the edge of the Panhandle through Central Texas are asked to keep an eye to the sky beginning mid-October for whoopers in migration.

Because we’re very interested in learning what habitat areas they use in migration, and understand more about those, and the rate of their migration.

But don’t look for a huge flock.

Usually it’s family groups – two or three, or maybe groups of sub-adults that might number about five or six – but just small groups of very large white birds.

Find links to more whooper information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show…with support from the Wildlife restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Habitat Enhancement Program.

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

Return of the Whoopers Play Now | Play in Popup | Download