Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Texas Amphibian Watch is a statewide volunteer program in which citizen scientists monitor frogs and toads in an effort to fend off the extinction of species currently in decline. Here’s how it’s done:

There are different levels of monitoring. The easiest of which is whenever you see an amphibian, you write down the time of day, the weather, the rough location, and then once a year you send that in to Parks and Wildlife and they’ll add that into one database.

Scott Kiester, Texas Amphibian Watch volunteer. If you prefer listening to amphibians as opposed to looking at them, there’s a way you can make a contribution.

There’s a program called Adopt-a-Frog-Pond, where you agree to go and listen and record the species you hear at a specific location. Once a month, sometimes more often than that, I’ll take 15 minutes and go out in the evening and listen to who’s out in the neighborhood croaking away. Frogs are a lot more active and do a lot more calling in that period of time after a rain, particularly if you can do it the day after a rain or if you get a rain in the afternoon go out and do it that evening. They just croak away.

Hop on over to the calendar section of the Texas Parks & Wildlife website to find upcoming Amphibian Watch workshops.

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

Turkey hunters look forward to spring.

Any time that I can be out in the spring where it’s starting to get warm and the flowers are starting to bloom, and the spring smells are out in the air, it’s a good time to be out in the woods.

Steve DeMaso is Upland Game Bird Manager.

There have been times where I’ve called birds up and not even thought about shooting them, just call them in and watch them strut and relax and enjoy the scenery.

For those who do wish to harvest a bird, DeMaso says the season – which varies around the state — looks promising.

Throughout the state we’re expecting this spring to be a pretty good turkey season, if we get good hunting conditions. And by good conditions I mean it’s not abnormally hot, dry, or we don’t get a month of thunderstorms. But if we can get some nice spring days, I think we ought to have a pretty good season this year.

And where will hunters find these big birds?

The Edward’s plateau, the cross timbers, the rolling plains and south Texas would be the primary area for the Rio Grande. And then the Pineywoods, over in northeast Texas would be the primary area for the Eastern birds.

Remember to always consult your Outdoor Annual for hunting regulations

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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The year 2006 marked a major milestone in the recovery of the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. Mexican and U.S. scientists staged the largest single-day turtle release since the bi-national recovery project began three decades ago, helping two hundred forty thousand (240,000) turtle hatchlings wriggle across the sand and into the Gulf of Mexico. Even though sea turtle nestings on Texas and Mexico beaches soared to record highs in 2006, biologists are tempering jubilation with caution, saying current levels of funding and work must continue for the world’s most endangered sea turtle to fully recover. Tom Harvey has this report.

Read about Ridley Recovery

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