Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas Supported by the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program

Setting out backyard feeders encourages birds to gather where you can easily enjoy them.

10—Feeders should be a supplement to a garden. That’s what you should concentrate on, is creating a garden that is going to provide some of the materials, and then use your feeders to put the birds where you can easily see them.

Mark Klym coordinates the Wildscaping Program for Parks and Wildlife. The types of feeders and food you supply determines the birds that visit.

35—Black oil sunflower seed is your best. I certainly do not recommend using the mixes that have a lot of red millet or milo in them because they tend to attract a lot of house sparrows. Use different types of feeders. Not all of our birds can easily feed on a column that is hanging with a very short perch. Put out a platform feeder and you’ll get some of your traditionally ground-feeding birds that will go to the platform. Put out some peanut feeders for some of our bigger jays. You might want to look at putting out a sock feeder, which is just a sock that has thistle seed in it, for the finches. And they’ll actually pull it out of the cloth sock.

There you have it: creating a stunning and educational experience in your own backyard is as easy as hanging a sock filled with seeds. Remember to keep those binoculars handy.

05—There is no place better in the world for attracting birds than right here in Texas.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series and funds diverse conservation projects throughout Texas.

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

Passport to Texas with support from the WSFR Program

Before you sell seashells by the seashore, you first have to find them. Surprisingly, summer beachcombing may not yield the results you desire.

03—I feel the best time to go shelling is in the wintertime.

Paul Hammerschmidt, with coastal fisheries, is a lifelong and—admittedly obsessive—shell collector. He says winter storms churn up the Gulf bottom, sending marine critters and their calciferous containments onto the beach. To improve your chances of finding a variety of intact shells, Hammerschmidt says stay clear of crowded beaches.

12—If you get a chance to go to some more isolated beaches, like down on Padres island, or something like that, where the population of humans is not quite so thick, you’ll have a much better chance of finding some really unusual shells.

Such as a pretty little shell called baby ears—which looks like…well…baby ears. Or, there’s another special shell worth searching for called spirula.

19—And it’s a coiled, snail-like shell. But it doesn’t belong to a snail—it belongs to a little squid. And it’s inside the squid, and when the squid dies, that little thing has a lot of chambers in it with gas, and it floats and washes up on the beach. Those are very pretty, bright white, and they’re very fragile, so you have to be careful with them.

This winter, instead of heading to the slopes for skiing, head to the beach for shelling…you can still have hot cocoa when you’re done.

That’s our show for today…remember: life’s better outside…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Passport to Texas with support from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program

Nobody thinks twice about collecting shells from the beach. But I started to wonder if it’s really okay since beaches are public land.

08—It’s okay to collect shells. The ones that are broken and come apart, they create the sand that’s out there, but there is no law against it [collecting].

Paul Hammerschmidt, with coastal fisheries, is a lifelong shell collector. He says collect responsibly to avoid creating problems for the environment or marine animals.

05—I highly recommend that you only take shells that are from dead animals—not live animals.

How can you determine if something is still alive? In the case of the popular sand dollar, small spines cover the shells of living animals…so look for smooth, spineless shells. If, like me, you’ve never found a sand dollar on the beach—there’s good reason for it.

18—I think it’s because everybody wants to get a sand dollar. And, too, they’re another very fragile shell. And when the waves are strong, they’ll get broken up, and you’ll just see fragments of them. A lot of times, the best time to find a sand dollar, is after a storm—and then very early in the morning—before anybody else gets out on the beach.

When and where to go shelling on tomorrow’s show.

Our series receives support from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program …funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…

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

This is Passport to Texas

Cooler fall temperatures may have you chomping at the bit to get on your bicycle and ride. When the spirit moves you, our state park guide Bryan Frasier suggests you hit the trails at one of our state parks.

56— If you like extreme, challenging mountain biking on single track trails, you can really get out and get a workout and see some of the most unique and beautiful scenery in Texas on a bicycle. Let’s say you want something that’s rugged and enjoyable but not necessarily an epic ride; well, we have that, too. We even have paved flat surfaces and road surfaces that people can just enjoy seeing nature from two wheels. And a few tips we might give to people before they go out is make sure their bike is in good shape, that their tires are inflated, that their gears, and cables, and chains have been checked out recently so that they’re safe. And make sure they take their biking helmet. Always take at least one bottle of water. Get your biking map in hand, and they’re available – the site maps are available – at all of the headquarters at all of the state parks. Plan your route and see how much fun biking can be at a state park.

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.

This is Passport to Texas sponsored by the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program

With a couple of months of hurricane season 2012 remaining, it’s important to remember lessons from the past. We learned seven years ago from Katrina that abundant, healthy wetlands may have helped to moderate the storm surge that devastated the city.

12 –I think there’s a greater appreciation now than ever before of the values that wetlands provide. At least from the standpoint of improving water quality and storm abatement and attenuation of flood flows.

Nathan Kuhn is a wetland ecologist at Texas Parks and Wildlife. He explains how wetlands buffer coastlines from the overwhelming impact of storms.

36 – They basically block the winds and tides and everything else when these hurricanes come in. They’re essentially a buffer. It slowly reduces storm surges as you go farther inland, and it also reduces – just in general – the power of a hurricane. You know how hurricanes always lose power as they’re going over Florida? It’s because they’ve made landfall. Warm water is the driver for hurricanes; and once they hit the land then they lose power. That’s why they lose strength, it’s because they’re no longer getting fuel anymore. That’s the value of wetlands. If you have them way out in the gulf of Mexico from where your house is, then by the time it hits your house it’ll already have lost a lot of steam.

And that can mean the difference between minor structural damage and losing everything.

That’s our show for today… made possible by the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program… providing funding for wetland conservation through the Private Lands Enhancement Program.

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