Passport to Texas

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

The Seven Cross Ranch, a stocker cattle operation, grazes its animals on restored native prairie. The ranch is the Lone Star Land Steward Award winner for the High Plains eco-region.

This is crème de la crème of the high plains ecological region.

Gene Miller is a wildlife biologist based in Canyon, Texas.

What you see, when you see this Seven Cross Ranch, is a microcosm—a natural prairie ecosystem.

Seven Cross Ranch didn’t achieve rarified status by accident. Owners/operators, LH and Nama Webb, utilize a rapid rotation grazing system that simulates a bygone era when vast herds of bison roamed the high plains.

They’d come through, graze it down, and then move on in their trek. So, it’s more like the way it evolved over centuries. The more cattle you can get on one spot, you have the animal impact, the hoof action, and you get a more uniform graze, because you have more cattle in a smaller area, but you have to move them faster. And you know, my goal is possible a hundred pastures, and you know, you’re hitting one pasture a day—and then you’re off of it. And if you have a hundred pastures, you know, you’re hitting one pasture a day, and then you’re off of it. And if you’ve got a hundred pastures, then you’re off it for ninety-nine days before you get back to it. You don’t want to severely graze it, you just want to kind of top it off and move them on.

Learn more about the Lone Star Land Steward Program at: passporttotexas.org

That’s our show… with support from the Wildlife Restoration Program…providing funding for the Private Lands and Public Hunting Program. For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Falconry and the return of the Trinity River…in the November issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine. Managing editor, Louie Bond.

Russell Graves wrote a great story on falconry for us this month. And, falconry has such historic roots. It dates back to seventh century BC, in Mesopotamia, believe it or not, all the way through European nobility. And even the Japanese Samurai culture used falcons. So it has great historic traditions, not to mention it’s just such a beautiful site. One particular quote from a falconer really stood out for me about the bond between the bird and the hunter, and that is: ‘Every time you cut your bird loose, they can choose not to come back to you.’

Five million people depend on the Trinity River for clean water, so there’s nothing that could be more important. But they’re having tremendous success—lots of good things to come. And it just proves once again that we can work together to protect and preserve our natural resources.

We have more information about these topics at passporttotexas.org.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Setting out backyard feeders is a great way to get birds to gather in places where you can easily enjoy them.

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, an avid birder, coordinates the Wildscaping Program for Parks and Wildlife. The kinds of feeders and food you put out will determine the kinds of birds you attract for up close viewing.

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 can be as easy as hanging a sock with the proper seed. Just be sure to keep those binoculars handy.

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

Learn more about Texas birds and ways to bring them to your home by visiting our website: passporttotexas.org

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

[SFX: winter wind]
With winter on the way, you may be tempted to set out bird feeders for your feathered visitors.

There are people that maintain that feeders are unnatural, that they crowd the birds into a smaller area. Birds are like us, if there’s food available, they’re going to come to it.

Wildscape program coordinator, Mark Klym, says the crowding situation is fleeting, and should not be a factor when deciding whether to provide birds with supplemental feeding. Since we’re myth-busting, Klym adds that a dirty feeder—while unpleasant—will not cause disease birds that eat from them.

If they’re not kept clean, they can enhance disease situations, but they can’t—by themselves—cause disease.

Another unfounded feeder fear is that easy access to food will encourage migratory species to stay put.

Birds migrate for a much more powerful trigger than just whether there’s just food available. And if you look at it, in a lot of areas, when the birds start to move, there’s some of the biggest supplies of [natural] food that there have been all year.

Finally, there is no evidence that a bird feeder will cause species not usually found in your area to book a visit.

Your feeder is not going to bring a bird that wouldn’t otherwise have been in the area. It’s going to be a situation where that bird happened to be in the area already, saw your feeder, and came to it.

So, this winter, if you want to put out a feeder to supplement the diet of visiting birds, do so without guilt.

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

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Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Nan Crouch and her sister Jan Wigginton of Brady, are avid outdoorswomen and hunt together whenever they can. Nan shared a “dirty” story with us about the rainy day she bagged a big buck on family property in Rochelle.

So, in order to get it out, we had to go back to the cabin and call my husband to come clean it for me. On the way back, we were excited and not paying attention, and we ran through this low place in the road and we got stuck [in the mud] up to the axels on the three-wheeler.

But, anyway, he came down and went over and got the buck, got him cleaned, got him back to town. It was quite an experience and it was fun. (giggles) You know, we never have a camera when we do stuff like this, because we’re always doing something kind of dumb.

Nan listens to our show on KNEL in Brady. She also won the grand prize in our Texas Outdoor Story promotion this summer. Learn more at passporttotexas.org.

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

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