Passport to Texas

Using a birding guide enhances your bird-watching experience.

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This is Passport to Texas

Before long you’ll see treetops dotted with color. Flowers? Nope. Feathers! Feathers of migrating bird species stopping over in Texas. To know what you’re seeing, you’ll need a good field guide.

There are so many really good field guides out there. I always like to recommend the ones that cover the whole country, because that way you just spend $20 or so, and you’ve got a book that’s great for any trip, when you go visit California to Florida to New York or here in Texas.

Cliff Shackelford is Parks and Wildlife’s non-game ornithologist.

So, I really like the National Geographic Society’s Field Guide to the Birds of North America. The Sibley guide is very good. The Roger Tory Petersen guide is very good. And the Golden Guide to Birds of North America. So, there’s really three or four. And the neat thing is, is to buy more than one; have one in the car, have one at home, and have one at the office. That way, you see different depictions of the birds, and then wherever you are that book is going to be at your fingertips.

Find birding information on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

We humans – we like to watch reality TV. You can have that experience out in your yard or at your local park, just looking to see what’s going on in the life of a bird.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

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

The Devils River

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This is Passport to Texas

The 37-thousand acre Devils River State Natural Area is primitive and isolated. Visitors to the site should be prepared for a rugged wilderness experience.

The waterway, for which it’s named, is one of the state’s most ecologically intact rivers. Paddling Devils River ranks high on many people’s bucket lists.

While limited access is available for paddlers through the Devils River Access Permit system, paddling this river is not for the faint of heart. Due to its remote location, safe, reliable, and legal camp sites on the river are in short supply.

To help create safe conditions for the recreational use of the Devils River and minimize trespassing issues, the Texas Parks and Wildlife River Access and Conservation Area Program opened two paddle-up-only camp sites last month.

By adding the two new campsites, permitted paddlers can explore the river safely and maintain the high standards of river stewardship that will preserve its uniqueness.

Texas Parks and Wildlife is partnering with the Devils River Conservancy to collaborate on educational materials that will be distributed among local guides and vendors to prepare paddlers for overnight trips on the Devils River.

These camp sites are the newest additions to Texas Parks and Wildlife’s statewide network of 19 River Access and Conservation Areas, offering improved angler and paddler access to more than 100 miles of Texas rivers.

The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

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

Barred Owl

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This is Passport to Texas

Owls symbolize wisdom – and we can learn much from them when pick their… pellets.

It’s more dignified than digging through poo because you’ll be digging through vomit.

Amy Kocurek and I have different ideas about what’s dignified, but this interpretive ranger at Martin Dies Jr. SP, in East TX does know how to keep visitors engaged.

The kids especially, they love it. Little furry, tin foiled wrapped up presents, that they get to unwrap and see what sort of mysterious surprises await inside.

Wrapped in foil? Yes, because you can order them online.

Most of them are from barn owls that people will collect from in their bars where owls just hack up these pellets; they’ll collect them and sanitize them and sell them for teachers, mostly.

Whether pellets are fresh or sanitized for your protection, those small, furry capsules have secrets to reveal.

Because it contains these almost perfectly preserved pieces of bones and beaks and different things the owl ate, researchers can see what their man food source is in the area that they’re living, if that food source is changing seasonally…. But also, if you’re doing population studies on small mammals that will allow you to see how many different types of mammals are being eaten by owls. So, it can give you an all-round general idea of the population of animals in that ecosystem.

Dissect pellets with Amy Kocurek April 15 at Martin Dies Jr. SP; details at texasstateparks.org.

That’s our show… Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

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

Ignition operations on an RX-burn at the Matador WMA. Image: Verble Fire Ecology Lab.

TPW TV - Prescribed Fire Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

The Matador Wildlife Management Area offers vistas of colorful rolling plains and canyons. Texas Parks and Wildlife maintains the beauty and balance of this 28-thousand acre natural landscape with the regular use of an ancient tool.

Right now they are preparing to light a test fire. It gives us a pretty good indication of what the fire behavior is going to be like. And since it’s a test, if it doesn’t work out, we can put the fire out and go for it another day.

Chris Schenck is part of Texas Parks and Wildlife’s prescribed fire crew. A segment about prescribed fire airs next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS. Team member, Derreck Holdsctock, says fire is an important, natural process.

Whenever you don’t have fire brush encroaches. The more brush there is, the higher the fire danger is going to be during a dry year. So the more fire you put on the ground the less the effects of a wildfire will be and the more controllable it will be.

Prescribed fire has many jobs. It knocks back invasive plants, returns nutrients to the soil, and promotes native species, creating a balance of cover and forage for wildlife.

Every time we do a fire I feel like we’re taking a big chunk out of our management of that area. And then when you come back three months later and you have all this tall grass and you have all the wildflowers out there, it just kind of brings it all together and you realize what you’ve accomplished.

Catch the segment on Prescribed Fires this week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS. Check your local listings.

The Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series.

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

Bill Baker and Andy Dietrich, accepting the 2015 Statewide Weeklong Tournament winners trophy for the NRG Eco-eagles.

The Real Winners of the Birding Classic: Birds Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

For the past 20 years, the Great Texas Birding Classic has been the world’s biggest, longest, and wildest birdwatching tournament in the U.S.!

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would do it for 20 straight years.

Bill Baker’s been participating in the Classic since the beginning, even though he says his team was an embarrassment their first time out.

Over the years Bill’s team improved—a lot. And the NRG Eco-Eagles won the Week Long tournament 8 times, came in second one year and third another year for total winnings of just over $170K, which went toward avian habitat enhancement.

Texas has such diverse habitats, and such diverse birds. One of our team members lives in Pennsylvania. And the highlight of his year is coming down here, traveling Texas, to get to see the different species of birds that we have throughout the regions of Texas. We are blessed to have such habitat in our great state.

Bill’s passionate about the Classic, and thinks you can be, too.

If you’ve never participated in this event, it will change your life. It’s exciting. It’s fun. You do this with friends. You learn. It contributes to enhancing avian habitat in the great state of Texas.

The Great Texas Birding Classic gets underway April 15. Registration for this year has ended, but keep up with the action at birdingclassic.org, and start planning for next year.

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