Passport to Texas

Toyota Texas Bass Classic, Image by Larry Hodge

Toyota Texas Bass Classic 2016 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

The Toyota Texas Bass Classic is May 20th thru 22nd this year.

We’re in our tenth year now. The event is moving to a new location in Frisco, Texas; we’ll be at the Toyota Stadium, and fishing at Lake Ray Roberts State Park.

Dave Terre, with Inland Fisheries, helps organize and promote this professional bass fishing tournament and outdoor festival.

 The Toyota Texas Bas Classic gives us an opportunity to really showcase what it is that Texas Parks and Wildlife Department does. It gives us an opportunity to showcase the great fishing we have in our state. This year it’s going to give us a great opportunity to showcase state park opportunities we have, since this year we’ll be doing it at Lake Ray Roberts State Park.

Professional bass anglers compete to reel in the biggest bass for big winnings. The true winners, though, are the youth of Texas; the Toyota Texas Bass Classic is a fundraiser for Parks and Wildlife’s youth fishing programs.

We’ve already received about 2.25 million dollars which the department has taken and reinvested back into youth fishing related outreach, creating new anglers. It’s really an exciting opportunity for Parks and Wildlife; something no other state has.

Find details and ticket information for Toyota Texas Bass Classic at toyotatexasfest.com.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Birding in Weslaco in the Rio Grande Valley

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This is Passport to Texas

When I hear the word ringer, I think unfair advantage. Yet, wringers are “good guys” and encouraged in the Great Texas Birding Classic’s Big Sit tournament.

You can have a team with all people who are beginning, and then they just have to be sure they have a ringer or two on their team who can ID the bird for them for it to go on their list.

That’s Texas Parks and Wildlife Nature Tourism coordinator, Shelly Plante who oversees the event. She told me our colleague, Bob Sweeney, an attorney, is a Big Sit ringer.

You know, I’ve been fascinated with birds since childhood, and even in high school I was out in the field and woods with my binoculars and my book. I just think it’s an exciting, dynamic part of the natural world, and pretty easy if you’re willing to put a little time into it to develop a minimum level of knowledge.

Bob has done that and more, and says he enjoys helping beginning birders gain knowledge and confidence.

I think any teacher has a great feeling when they feel like someone in the class gets it. Someone snaps to it. That Eureka moment may come, not during the Big Sit, but it may be something that was learned during the Big Sit that is then used in the backyard, or used on a hike or communicated to another person who is wanting to start out, so maybe the light bulb when it goes on is the confidence to transmit that knowledge—I know what that is. I saw it in the Big Sit. And here’s why I think it’s that.

The Great Texas Birding Classic is April 15 through May 15th. Stay on top of the action at birdingclassic.org.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Friends working together to identify birds in the Birding Classic’s Big Sit Tournament.

The Birding Classic's Big Sit Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Does sitting outdoors in a circle with friends and family sound like a birding tournament to you? It is, and it’s called The Big Sit.

 We call them lovingly the tailgate party for birders. Because really it’s wherever you can set up a 17-foot diameter circle. Be that your backyard, a local park, a state park – anywhere that makes sense for you to be able to see a good group of birds and to spend a day with friends and family.

The Big Sit is one of the tournaments of the Great Texas Birding Classic, in its 20th year. Shelly Plante, nature tourism manager at TPW, coordinates event.

You can have as few as one person on your team, to as many as you can fit in that circle throughout the course of the day. And people can come in shifts. They don’t have to stay for the whole 24 hours. So, you could have a morning group, a midafternoon group. You could have them come throughout the day. No one has to stay there the entire time.

The Big Sit tournament is ideal for novice birdwatchers.

The Big Sit is great for beginners, because it lets you get your feet wet in the Birding Classic, and see what a bird watching tournament really is. Once you get your confidence in The Big Sit it’s easier to move on to doing a Sunrise to Noon tournament; it’s easier to say hey, I want to do a Big Day where I drive around to a lot of places. And so we have tournaments for that as well.

The Great Texas Birding Classic is April 15 through May 15th. Team registration closed April 1st, but you can stay on top of the action at birdingclassic.org.

The Great Texas Birding Classic

The Birding Classic for Beginners Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

For those who don’t know how the various birdwatching tournaments of The Great Texas Birding Classic unfold…

Groups of people go out and birdwatch for a half a day or a day and even as much as a week. And, they go out with their friends and family to see how many birds they can identify in a short amount of time, and the team with the most species on their list wins. Except for one tournament.

That one tournament is The Big Sit. Shelly Plante is the nature tourism manager at Texas Parks and Wildlife, and coordinates the Great Texas Birding Classic, now in its 20th year.

The Big Sit is a fun one. In the Birding Classic, most of the tournament categories, everyone has to ID a bird for it to go on a list, but not the Big Sit.

In the Big Sit, Plante says only one team member has to ID a bird for it to make the list, either by sight or sound.

It’s the perfect event for the new birder. You can have a team with all people who are beginning, and then they just have to be sure they have a ringer or two on their team who can ID the bird for them for it to go on their list. And it turns into a really fun day for people.

The Great Texas Birding Classic is April 15 through May 15th. Team registration is closed for this year, but you can stay on top of the action at birdingclassic.org.

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

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti

Adult viceroy butterflies have a solid black line on the hind-wings.

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In nature, deception can mean the difference between life and death for certain species; animals use camouflage and mimicry to fool predators and prey alike.

Stick insects look like slim twigs and-when among the branches of woody plants-go largely undetected by rodents, bats, and birds that would make a meal of them.

Eastern screech owls use cryptic coloration to blend into their surroundings. When perched in trees their feathers resemble bark; their prey may not notice them until it’s too late to elude capture.

By mimicking the color and pattern of the Monarch butterfly which is poisonous if eaten, the Viceroy butterfly manages to stay off the menu of species that
would otherwise make a snack of it.

Southern flounder, a species of flatfish, are predatory animals. Their coloring is similar to the gulf floor where they lay in wait unnoticed for potential prey-which they ambush once spotted.

A whitetail fawn’s spots help to camouflage it from predators. It works best when they are in a wooded setting, as their reddish coat with white spots resembles
dappled sunlight on the forest floor.

Even though in the human world deception seems like a cheap trick, in the natural world, it’s just the trick some animals need to survive.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife … I’m Cecilia Nasti