texas - Wildlife Management Pro

Central Texas Hiking Trail

With spring just around the corner, the weather is much more conducive for some serious hiking and rock climbing in Central Texas, and what better place to find a central Texas hiking trail than Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. The terrain is well suited for both the casual hiker as well as those looking for a more adventurous climb. The website notes: “Enchanted Rock State Natural Area consists of 1643.5 acres on Big Sandy Creek, north of Fredericksburg, on the border between Gillespie and Llano Counties.”

The state park charges a small fee for parking, and it is a haven for nature lovers and outdoorsmen. The Loop Trail covers a terrain of 4 miles, and Summit Trail climbs 425 feet in 0.6 miles, according to the park’s map. It is recommended that you bring plenty of water and snacks because that particular hiking trail can be harder than it looks. Continue reading Central Texas Hiking Trail

Hunter Shot While Duck Hunting

It’s being reported that a duck hunter near Port Arthur, Texas, has been killed in a duck hunting accident on the upper Texas coast. Jefferson County Justice of the Peace Bob Morgan says 30 year old Matthew Thomas Janson, of Houston, was hit by a shotgun blast as he and a friend were firing at ducks at J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area.

Morgan says the Sunday shooting is being investigated as an accident. He says the men launched a boat in Sabine Pass and that the shooting happened about an hour later in a marsh. The hunting partners were at compartment 17 of the South Bayou Unit of the J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area when they began shooting simultaneously at ducks. Continue reading Hunter Shot While Duck Hunting

Texas Big Bass Fisheries Should Thank Durocher

Phil Durocher, longtime head of Inland Fisheries at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, is ending his 35 years at the agency. He doesn’t go alone, however. His wife, Jean, also retired on December 31, ending a 35-year run as a nurse in one doctor’s office. Durocher walked away from the top fisheries job at TPWD a little scarred from past fights, but knows he played a role in pushing Texas to the top of bass fishing in North America.

He spent more than a few hours standing before hostile crowds and commissions, quietly offering up his positions, often using his gun bang-damaged ear to pretend he didn’t hear the semi-silent cursing and complaining from his audience. That was especially true in 1986, when Durocher was TPWD’s front man traveling the state promoting a change in bass fishing regulations that would forever alter the world of fishing. Continue reading Texas Big Bass Fisheries Should Thank Durocher

All About White-winged Doves

White-winged doves get their name from the white wing bars along their wings, which are easily visible while the doves are in flight. No other dove species in the United States possesses this unique trait. Adult white-winged doves are physically stunning. Adult doves have blue eye-rings that develop during their first 5 months. Adult plumage consists of brownish feathers while juveniles are typically gray-brown. There are about 12 subspecies of the white-winged dove, of which four breed in the southern United States.

The western white-winged dove and the eastern white-winged dove are two subspecies that have been studied the most in Texas. The eastern whitewinged dove is the most common subspecies found in South Texas. Both of these subspecies have “invaded” further north into Texas in recent years, moving north out of Mexico and the Rio Grande valley. The eastern white-winged dove’s population status within its historical range of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas has been transformed over the past century from an over abundant rural species to one of lower numbers because of habitat loss. Continue reading All About White-winged Doves

Grazing Land Stewardship: A Manual for Texas Landowners

Texas’ grazing lands are a critical natural resource and managing them is both a science and an art. With the introduction of the “Grazing Land Stewardship: A Manual for Texas Landowners,” even those who are new to land ownership and/or habitat management will have the tools and information needed to be good stewards of the land and manage for quail, turkey, and white-tailed deer. The how-to manual has three sections that include Grazing Basics (what makes land healthy, livestock nutrition, forage quality, water and fences, grazing behavior), Getting Started (setting goals, land inventories, grazing strategies), and Follow Through (record keeping, managing livestock, managing wildlife habitat).

The Grazing Lands Stewardship manual helps connect landowners and managers with trained professionals in the field. Many of these professionals have received specialized training and have worked with ranchers throughout the state and across the U.S. They have seen have practices have endured and have developed a core set of principles that can build a foundation for successful land management. Continue reading Grazing Land Stewardship: A Manual for Texas Landowners

Black Bear Shot in Menard County, Texas

According to experts, black bear were eradicated from Texas by the 1950s. However, bears would occassionally show up from time to time as they traveled into the Lone Star State—primarily from Mexico. Because there was no game law prohibiting them from being killed, the State of Texas formally made bear hunting illegal in 1983. Shortly thereafter, bears that moved north and into Texas were protected, begin to reproduce, and have been expanding their range north and eastward since.

Black bear have had a stronghold in the mountainous areas of the Trans-Pecos, but the animals have been moving into the Edwards Plateau more recently. They are showing up on game cameras placed out by hunters to track white-tailed deer. In fact, just last year one had to be chemically immobilized and moved out of the city of Del Rio, and another big bear was road-killed near Alpine. Then there was the shooting of a black bear in Menard County earlier this year:

“Ray Hernandez was checking for oil at a pump jack this summer on a vast stretch of ranchland in Menard County when his cell phone rang. It was a well worker at a pipe yard on the property, insisting that he’d seen a bear.

The June 23 sighting escalated swiftly into a bear hunt that ended with the crack of a rifle, a felled beast and a criminal charge against Hernandez, who decapitated the state-protected creature with a hacksaw and ferried home its head and paws.

The black bear that wandered onto the Central Texas cattle ranch that day is the first ever confirmed in that part of the state, according to Capt. Alan Teague, a game warden with Texas Parks and Wildlife. For Teague and others at the agency, it’s further proof that the stamped-out species is reclaiming lost territory.”

Continue reading Black Bear Shot in Menard County, Texas

Mountain Lion Shot in Junction, Texas

This mountain lion was killed in early November 2009 about 6 miles south of Junction, Texas. The hunter was looking to harvest a white-tailed deer during Texas’ General Season when this cougar walked by. The photo was taken at Kimble Processing in Junction. Mountain lion sightings and kills have increased in recent years as the cats expand their range eastward again.

Mountain lions, also commonly referred to as cougars, pumas, or catamounts, have a large distribution across North and Central America. In fact, the Mountain lion has the widest distribution of any wild cat, from Canada to South America. Formerly distributed throughout North America, the Mountain lion is now found mostly in the remote areas of the western U.S., as well as western Canada and much of Mexico. A small lion population still exists in southern Florida, where the species is considered an endangered animal. Continue reading Mountain Lion Shot in Junction, Texas