Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

[SFX – mourning dove]

The mourning dove is the most ubiquitous game bird in Texas, and wildlife biologist, Jay Roberson, acquaints us with the species.

05—Its pointed tail, fairly streamlined, whistles from the wind going through the feathers on take-off.

[SFX dove in Flight]

It also has a unique way of drinking.

12—This is about the only bird species that doesn’t tilt its head back when it drinks water. It siphons water in like we might when we’re drinking from a stream. They don’t tilt their head back like a quail or a pheasant or a turkey.

The mourning dove is not fussy about where it nests.

18—They’ll nest in almost any situation in any tree. Their nest is really a flimsy platform of twigs; It only takes them two to three days to build that nest. And they go through a nesting cycle in about 30 days total. And they repeat that again. And they have about two young per nest attempt.

Roberson tells us that this bird creates “pigeon milk” for its babies!

13—Through digestion of seed and regurgitation of that seed in a high fat, high protein paste for the young – that allows them to be very successful at their nesting attempts.

Is it any wonder they’re ubiquitous?

The Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series, and funds conservation work throughout Texas. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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Producer’s Note: Information in online text version has been updated, and varies slightly from audio version.

This is Passport to Texas

[SFX—mourning dove call]

Dove season always signals the beginning of all fall hunting opportunities.

September first marks the beginning of the season in the north and central zones, but the season doesn’t open in the south zone until September 17.

And that is to protect late-nesting mourning doves. We have indications from studies that a significant proportion of young are produced after September first in South Texas. And obviously, we want to set the hunting seasons when we’re not going to affect the survival of the young that are still in the nest.

Jay Roberson is a wildlife biologist. He says protecting the species not only makes good conservation sense, it makes good economic sense.

A Southwick Economic Survey, in 2005, indicated that over three hundred million dollars are generated annually to local economies from dove hunting. Over three thousand jobs are created because of dove hunting, and about twenty one million dollars in sales tax is generated annually from dove hunting. This comes from leases, gasoline, groceries, hunting licenses, goods and services at local stores. So it is an extremely important species.

Find all the hunting information you need in the 2010-2011 Outdoor Annual.

The Sport Fish and Wildlife restoration Program…supports our series, and is funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuel.

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

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Thanks to legislative appropriations over the past two biennia, folk living in or traveling to the DFW area will enjoy improved hookups. It’s not as naughty as it sounds. Our state park guide, Bryan Frazier, explains.

Cedar Hill SP is already one of our largest camping parks; it’s got more than 300 campsites. And so, we’re getting some hookup improvements at some of those bigger camping loops at Cedar Hill State park. And it sits right there on the Tarrant Dallas County Line. I mean, you can actually see part of the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium from parts of the park. That’s how in the urban area Cedar hill is.

And then at Tyler SP…that’s a CCC park, built in the 30s, and some structures are going to get renovated, some camping loops are going to get some improvements, and it’s a popular park with people. It’s not that far I20 from the DFW area. It represents previous bienniums legislative money that voters approved and it’s now showing up on the ground that really will enhance the visitor experience.

Find more information about Cedar Hill and Tyler State parks at texasstateparks.org.

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

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In Galveston Bay, some volunteers are gardening oysters. But they’re not looking to eat their produce.

(Water sounds)…We’ve got to rinse off some of the muck.

Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist Bill Rodney pulls up one of the mesh bags that hang off some of the private piers in San Leon.

The pier owners filled these bags with oyster shells and put them in the water at the beginning of the summer. Now, they are teeming with crabs, shrimp, small fish and baby oyster.

Rodney says none of these little critters will be staying in the bags.

Probably in the late fall we’ll pull up all these bags and then we’ll take them out to the reefs that we built to give those little communities a jump start.

It’s like seeing the reef. These reefs aren’t far from shore or the avid anglers of San Leon.

This is a big fishing community. Their motto is they are a drinking community with a fishing problem. These reefs will create structure that attracts fish. By having the reefs close to their pier, they won’t have to go out so far to find fish, and hopefully it will improve the recreational fishing around here.

Volunteers can’t eat the oysters they grow because the water close to shore doesn’t meet water quality standards, but these oysters will help repopulate reefs in the rest of the bay. And if that’s the case, this fishing community is more than happy to help.

That’s our show… we had research and writing help from Gretchen Mahan…the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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This is Passport to Texas

On a recent day in East Galveston Bay, there are twelve boats driving back and forth in an area that is about the size of 70 football fields. Most of the boats are oyster and shrimping boats.

But Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist Jennie Rohrer (Roar) says they aren’t fishing today. They’re helping restore oyster reefs that were destroyed by Hurricane Ike two years ago.

These boats are pulling what we are calling bagless dredges over an existing oyster reef that was covered up from sediment from Hurricane Ike. So instead of actually pulling up the oysters from the bottom, they’re just bringing the shells from underneath the sediment up on to the top of the existing sediment.

Oyster larvae need to attach to a hard surface in order to grow. So biologists hope that by exposing the shells, oysters will attach to them and slowly reestablish the reefs.

And Rohrer says oysters are a crucial part of this community’s livelihood.

Galveston Bay is very important in oyster harvest. And so a lot of money, a lot of effort, and a lot of people are hired through the commercial fishing industry.

East Galveston Bay is currently closed to commercial fishing to let the oysters grow and reproduce. But if all goes well, in two years, the oysters here should be ready for the catch.

That’s our show… we had research and writing help from Gretchen Mahan…the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration program supports our series… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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