Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Next time you’re in the untamed outdoors, and want to attract native wildlife – kiss the palm of your hand.

[kissing sound] I can do that to a bobcat that’s sitting out there behind a bush at a hundred yards, and it’ll start him towards me almost immediately. It just sounds delicious.

Delicious like a rodent. Gerald Stewart is a consultant for Johnny Stewart wildlife calls. Gerald’s father, Johnny, created a business featuring recorded animal sounds.

Dad realized early on in the development of the business, that these sounds could be used by quite a wide variety of people. Photographers, nature lovers, bird watchers, hunters, researchers, or people that just want to simply show their grandkids [raccoon call] the eyes of a raccoon coming through the grass at night…just for the joy of being able to see something wild, literally a few feet away from them.

Screech owls are common in residential neighborhoods, and are a good animal to call when you’re with children.

[screech owl]

It’s easier to call screech owls with children around. Screech owls are a gregarious little bird, very social. And will put up with human presence. After a minute or two of being there, humans can just start talking and milling around and the little screech owl just sits in the tree.

Learn about native wildlife by logging onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife web site.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

You only have until Saturday, April seventh to register if you intend to participate in the Great Texas Birding Classic.

This year is the 11th annual Great Texas Birding Classic. We are consolidating the tournament to a single weekend to try to make one big weekend of birding on the Texas coast.

Shelley Plante is Nature Tourism Coordinator. Although the classic takes place April 15 – 22, the three main bird watching events at the- the upper, central and lower coasts – occur April 21 & 22.

People get together in teams of 3 to 5 people and they go out for 24 hours of birding to see as many species as they can in that period. Teams record all the species that they see in a single day and we have judges that look at these results and award prizes to the top 3 teams for each tournament. For the week long and sectional adult tournaments, we actually have conservation cash grand prizes. This is $50,000 of habitat conservation money that goes to projects of the
winning team’s choice.

Everybody is invited to the annual classic, regardless of age or experience.

You do not have to be a strong birder to be involved. The tournament will fit any level of birding expertise and all of these tournaments are raising money for habitat conservation on the Texas coast.

Register online. Find out how on passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show for today…with research and writing help from Loren Seeger…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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

Edited by Dr. Leonard Brennan, Endowed Chair for Quail Research at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, the book Texas Quails: Ecology and Management is for anyone who wants to understand and manage this prized game bird.

And he approached myself, and about twenty-three others, to contribute to this book, which is pretty much everything that’s ever been studied, and ever been worked on — on quail in Texas.

Robert Perez is Texas Parks and Wildlife’s state quail biologist. Quail once ranged across thirty-six states, but are now only common in few states, including Texas.

The quail is a species that’s been surrounded by myth. Everyone’s got a reason why they’ve declined, or an old an wives’ tale about why they’re gone – because turkey are eating them, or because of fire ants, or because of some other reason. We as biologists understand that most any species, when it disappears, or gets drastically reduced on the landscape, it’s because of habitat.

Perez says, habitat loss is the main thrust of this volume.

Every chapter, fundamentally, is referring to habitat. And that’s something that we can’t repeat enough to folks. It’s human nature just to find an easy way, or a silver bullet, or a one-shot way to fix a problem. Put them out of a box – pen reared quail. There is no easy solution; we’ve got to work on repairing the habitat. And that’s, I think, a message throughout the text.

Find the book on Amazon.com.

That’s our show… made possible by the Wildlife Restoration Program… helping to fund the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas.

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

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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Did you know Texas is home to forty-four different species of frogs, as well as myriad other amphibians?

Scott Kiester, Texas Amphibian Watch volunteer, says you don’t have to travel far to find a homegrown frog or toad. In fact, he says they may be closer than you think.

The Gulf Coast Toad you’ll find anywhere where he’s got a moist place he can hide in the daytime and come out at night and hunt bugs. The Rio Grande Chirping Frog is endemic to the southern valley. They’re about as big as the joint on your little finger and they hang out in plants. They like particularly Bromeliads.

Not only can we identify these creatures by their habitats, we can also identify them by their distinctive calls.

Different frogs and toads call at different times of the year. There are some that are year-round: the Bullfrog, the Southern Leopard Frog, and the Northern Cricket Frog. They may not breed year-round, but you can hear them. There are other species, like the Spring Peeper, and the Upland and Spotted Chorus Frogs; you will only hear when the weather is cool. Their idea of a perfect day is fifties and rainy. Frogs mostly call to attract mates. In fact, only really male frogs call.

Learn more about frogs and toads on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

That’s our show for today…with research and writing help from Loren Seeger.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

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

The March issue of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine is on newsstands now. And in it you’ll find an article by Jim Blackburn – an environmental attorney and planner from Houston — who writes about one of his more memorable kayaking experiences along the Texas coast.

We were out on Bolivar flats in our kayaks, and there were literally thousands of avocets, which are gorgeous black and white birds with sort of a brownish neck and sort of an upturned bill. They’re wading birds, probably about fourteen-sixteen inches in height. There were literally thousands of them, and they would sort of just rise and fall in a mass. Just the patterns that threes birds made, were just incredible to see. And I’ve just never seen that many avocets in one place.

When you’re on a kayak, says Blackburn, you can get closer to nature than you ever thought possible.

I oftentimes take my kayak to the rookery islands to see the large fish-eating birds – the herons…the egrets… going through their breeding rituals… and then later in the spring raising their young. And those are really, really nice experiences.

Download a Canoing and Kayaking resource guide.

That’s our show… made possible by the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program… helping to fund the operations and management of more than 50 wildlife management areas.

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

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