WWW. TP WMAG AZINE.COM O NOVEM BER 2015 T h e O U T D O O R M A G A Z I N E o f T E XAS GOOD DOG! Remarkable retrievers bring heart to the hunt. PAINT ROCK | LONE STAR LAND STEWARD | FIRST HUNT OFFICIAL VEHICLE OF THE TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION OFFICIAL VEHICLE OF THE TOYOTA TEXAS BASS CLASSIC 2016 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off -Road Make the most of your weekends with the All-New 2016 Toyota Tacoma. It’s rugged, dependable, and loaded with the latest technology like GoPro ® windshield mount and backup camera. New adventures are waiting for you, go out and find them. toyota.com n o v e m b e r 38 30 2 0 1 5 COVER STORY A Hunter’s Better Half The incredible bond between a duck hunter and his dog. By David Sikes Her First Hunt License? Check. Training? Check. Now it all comes down to the moment you pull the trigger. By Stephanie M. Salinas 44 ­­­­A Beautiful Insanity Land steward award winner says ‘failing better’ is key to conservation success. By Tom Harvey 4 O NOVEMBER 2015 Visit our online archive at www.tpwmagazine.com. Find us on Facebook. For the latest information on Texas’ parks and wildlife, visit the department’s ­website: www.tpwd.texas.gov TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 5 Departments 8 At Issue By Carter P. Smith 10 Foreword/Mail Call Our readers share their ideas. 12 Scout: Recycled Reefs Movement to reclaim oyster shells creates new habitat for sea life. By Tom Harvey TPWD steps up monitoring after discovery of chronic wasting disease. By Steve Lightfoot 16 Park Pick: Metroplex Getaway Johnson Branch offers hiking, biking and fishing on Ray Roberts Lake in North Texas. By Danielle Bradley 18 Flora Fact: Spiraling Blooms Ladies’ tresses orchids rise like delicate corkscrews. By Jason Singhurst Once absent from most of the state, house finches can be found across Texas today. By Cliff Shackelford 22 Picture This: Capturing the Colors of Fall 14 Deer Sought for Disease Testing 20 Wild Thing: Redheaded Stranger Autumn provides creative chances to photograph the vivid beauty of the season. By Earl Nottingham 24 Skill Builder: Windproof, Waterproof and Warm Dressing for weather makes any outing more comfortable. By Ky Harkey 26 Three Days in the Field: Ready to Rock Native artists provide natural murals in this Concho County town. By Melissa Gaskill 50 Legend, Lore & Legacy: Avian Mailmen Carrier pigeons still bring messages on the wing. By Erin Kedzie 58 Parting Shot Covers FRONT: An alert retriever keeps an eye on the sky for incoming ducks during a hunt in the flooded bottomland hardwoods at The BigWoods on the Trinity in East Texas. Photo by Earl Nottingham / TPWD PREVIOUS SPREAD: A duck hunter and his Lab wait for the waterfowl to arrive. Photo © Gary Kramer THIS PAGE: It’s a blue sky day amid the ruins at Fort McKavett State Historic Site north of Junction. Photo © Rita Mae Frey 6 O NOVEMBER 2015 By Earl Nottingham In the Field THE OUTDOOR MAGAZINE OF TEXAS N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 5 , ­ V O L . 7 3 , N O. 9 GOVERNOR OF TEXAS Greg Abbott COMMISSION T. Dan Friedkin, Chairman Houston Ralph H. Duggins, Vice Chairman Fort Worth Lee M. Bass, Chairman-Emeritus Fort Worth S. Reed Morian Houston Bill Jones Austin James H. Lee Houston Margaret Martin Boerne Dan Allen Hughes Beeville Dick Scott Wimberley Executive Director Carter P. Smith Communications Director Josh M. Havens MAGAZINE STAFF: Randy Brudnicki Publisher Louie Bond Editor Russell Roe Managing Editor Nathan Adams Art Director Sonja Sommerfeld Photo Editor Earl Nottingham Chief Photographer Chase A. Fountain Photographer Traci Anderson Business Manager Jonathan Vail, Catherine Groth Photography Interns Emily Moskal Editorial Assistant CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Steve Lightfoot, Larry D. Hodge, Dyanne Fry Cortez, Stephanie M. Salinas CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Lefty Ray Chapa, Mike Bartoszek, Gary Kramer EDITORIAL OFFICES: 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, Texas 78744 Phone: (512) 389-TPWD Fax: (512) 389-8397 E-mail: magazine@tpwd.texas.gov ADVERTISING SALES OFFICES: S tone W allace C ommunications , I nc . c/o TP&W magazine 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, Texas 78744 Jim Stone, Advertising Director (512) 799-1045 E-mail: jim.stone@tpwd.texas.gov SUBSCRIPTIONS: (800) 937-9393 Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine (ISSN 0040-4586) is published monthly with com- bined issues in January/February and August/September by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, 4200 Smith School Rd., Austin, Texas 78744. The inclusion of adver- tising is considered a service to subscribers and is not an endorsement of products or concurrence with advertising claims. Copyright © 2015 by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. No part of the contents of this magazine may be reproduced by any means without the permission of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. The magazine is not responsible for the return of unsolicited materials provided for editorial consideration. SUBSCRIPTION RATE: $18/year; foreign subscription rate: $27.95/year. POST­­MASTER: If undeliverable, please send notices by form 3579 to Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine, P.O. Box 421103, Palm Coast, FL 32142-1103. Periodicals Postage Paid at Austin, Texas, with additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIBER: If the Postal Service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obliga- tion unless we receive a corrected address within one year. Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine is edited to inform readers and to stimulate their enjoyment of the Texas outdoors. It reflects the many viewpoints of contributing readers, writers, photogra- phers and ­illustrators. Only articles written by agency employees will always ­represent policies of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. S U B S CRI BER SERV I C ES Subscription inquiries only, please. PHONE: (800) 937-9393 STEPHANIE her M. father SALINAS she was was always growing fascinated — up the by the hunting trips took while whole process from the field to the freezer. Now, as an adult, she has taken her first hunting trip and shot her first deer. She learned the ins and outs of hunting white-tailed deer from various sources, including a hunter education course, friends and the man who inspired it all, her father. Stephanie, who has worked as an information specialist at the Texas Parks and Wild- life Department since 2012, loves to dive into new projects at work and at home. She also enjoys learning more about outdoor skills such as camping, hiking, hunting and fishing. She can regularly be found hiking the trails of state and local parks with her family, her friends and her faithful pups, Norma Jean and Lucille. TOM of wild HARVEY who grew is a hunter, in up a birder, that paddler, cares backpacker nature and seeker places family about and the outdoors. His father, DeWitt Harvey, is a lifelong hunter who started birding in midlife and traveled to birding hot spots around the world to pursue his newfound interest. By example he taught Tom a lot about the common ground between the many different kinds of people who share a love for the outdoors. Tom started with TPWD in 1992 and is currently deputy director of communi- cations. His job involves trying to help people in cities understand why they should care about what happens out in the country. His article this month about The BigWoods on the Trinity shows that private ranches, managed the right way, can serve the public good. has served JASON Texas SINGHURST Department as for a botanist/ecologist years, for the Parks and Wildlife the past 20 conducting field research on rare plant communities and rare plants across Texas. He has discovered and named five plant species new to science that are endemic (restricted) to Texas. Jason has published more than 100 scientific publications on the flora and ecology of Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and Okla- homa and has an extensive knowledge of the flora of tallgrass prairies. This year he developed the Identification of Milkweeds in Texas field guide in support of the Texas Milkweeds and Monarchs mapping project on iNaturalist. In 2008 he co-authored a book titled Rare Plants of Texas. Jason loves spending time with his wife and two daughters camping, hiking, fly fishing, kayaking and coaching soccer. TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 7 from the pen of carter p. smith My old friend was perfectly giddy with excitement. The spring and early summer rains had done him and his pastures well. He could hardly contain himself heralding his good fortune over the state of the Shackelford County range conditions, nesting cover, brood habitat and insect crop and the prospects for the upcoming hunting season. But I knew he really meant business when he leaned in with a big grin and said, “You know I’m buying bird dogs again.” And if that wasn’t enough to convince me that the tide had turned, he added for emphasis, “And so is my neighbor!” The quail have bounced back in a good portion of the state, and bird hunters from the Trans- Pecos to the High, Rolling and Coastal Plains to the South Texas Brush Country are chomping at the bit for cooler weather and a chance to break out their dogs, young and old, in pursuit of what appears to be a bumper crop of bobs and blues across quail country. It’s about time. I’m betting some old quail hunters like my friend will gladly come out of retirement to enjoy the quail bounty brought about by Mother Nature’s largesse and the well-tended pastures of the state’s abundant land stewards. Right along with them will be their trusted and indispensable hunting companions — setters, pointers and spaniels with names like Fat Kate and Little Sue, Belle and Ella, Maggie and Max. As the late Gene Hill used to remind us with such unbridled warmth and eloquence in his monthly “Hill Country” column in Field and Stream magazine, a good bird hunt is defined every bit as much or more by the dogs as it is by the shooting. Thankfully, whatever your quarry of interest, there is a dog for every season. And whether one needs a pointer, tracker, trailer, flusher, retriever or catch dog, there’s a breed for you. In the pages of this magazine, veteran outdoor writer and coastal enthusiast David Sikes shares tales about a duck hunter’s best friend. As he and any serious waterfowler will attest, a hunt out in the marsh or in a stand of flooded timber simply wouldn’t be complete without the excited whimper and post-retrieve spray from a big wet Lab in the duck blind. Speaking of such, we are honored this month to pay tribute to someone else who knows and cares a thing or two about big ducks and good dogs, the state’s latest Leopold Conservation Award winner. Dr. Robert MacFarlane, an abundantly cerebral and contemplative sort out of Palestine, has made restoring the woods and waters of his beloved bottomlands into a major conservation initiative to protect the Trinity River. With the deft hands and ever-probing mind of the surgeon that he is, MacFarlane has transformed a tired and worn-out old bottom into a showplace of nature and game and stewardship of the woods and wetlands. He’s done mighty well with his own patch of The BigWoods and in turn has served as an inspiration for other stewards up and down the river. There is not a better time of year than now to get out and about in our fine state. I hope you will enjoy the bountiful game and the ample scenery of our lands, woods, waters and parks. And take your favorite dog with you. Thanks for caring about our wild things and wild places. They need you now more than ever. The quail have bounced back in a good portion of the state, and bird hunters are chomping at the bit for cooler weather and a chance to break out their dogs. executive director Texas Parks and Wildlife Department mission statement: To manage and conserve the natural and cultural resources of Texas and to provide hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation opportunities for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. 8 O NOVEMBER 2015 UNWRAP THE HUNTING HOLIDAY picks, pans and probes from our readers FOREWORD LETTERS A MONARCH MOMENT “When you’re worried and you can’t sleep, just count your blessings instead of sheep,” advises Irving Berlin in a wonderful song from the movie e had just pulled up to the visi- White Christmas. Who could dispute the wisdom of those words? Open the front tors center at Galveston Island door and look outside — Texas is blessed! State Park in the last week of Octo- Where else in the world can you find such a spectacular smorgasbord of ber 2007 when we were immersed in nature? Striated desert canyons and dense pine forests, endless rolling plains a flowing mass of monarch butterflies. and mysterious karst caves, crystalline rivers and mountaintop vistas … what- The monarchs were moving south along ever your preferred habitat, you can find a spot that feels like home in Texas. the coast in a band 100+ yards wide and And a short drive away from that home is a Texas state park with some 50 feet up into the open arms inviting you to take some time to enjoy the amazing air. The beautiful, rivet- array of flora and fauna that bring our world to life. ing flow continued for over Each month, we take a little time in the front of the magazine 72 hours while we camped to talk about all these blessings with short profiles on plants and in the park. It was a sight animals, tips on improving your skills and photography, a look our family had never seen inside a state park and topical news articles. Fellow native Texan before and will never forget. and TPWD Executive Director Carter Smith writes eloquently We are glad that the U.S., and passionately about his love for all things Texas each month, Canada and Mexico are and I endeavor to share my love and pride with you, too. We love coming together (“Butterfly to hear from our readers as well, so keep those letters coming Banquet,” August/Septem- and talk to us on social media. ber 2015) so that more can “Your excellent article In Texas in November, we are blessed with the ability to hunt be done to ensure that this ‘Trekking Across the Top of for sport, relaxation and food. Here at Texas Parks & Wildlife, we wonder of nature continues Texas’ brought back fond look for stories with a lot of heart, so we’re tickled pink to bring for generations to come. memories of climbing you TPWD News and Information Specialist Stephanie Salinas’ Ross White Guadalupe Peak with my wife account of her first white-tailed deer hunt. Longtime contrib- Houston on our honeymoon.” utor and Corpus Christi Caller-Times columnist David Sikes takes us hunting ducks with dogs, so get ready to have your heart melted SAN MARCOS CONFUSION KENYON STEBBINS at the charismatic canines you’ll meet. write to say thanks for Harbor Springs, Mich. This year’s Leopold Conservation Award winner, Doc McFar- choosing San Marcos as lane, is a dog lover who has created a wetland in East Texas by trying and the go-to destination for the failing and then learning from his mistakes. He recalls the words of Samuel 3 Days in the Field column for August/ Beckett: Keep trying, and “fail better” next time. Another bit of sound advice! September 2015. A native of San Mar- There’s an even greater blessing than our landscape, our parks, our flora cos, I feel the article well covers many of and fauna — and yes, even dogs — and that’s you, our beloved readers. Some the more prominent highlights of San of you first picked up a copy of this magazine on your grandpa’s table and now Marcos and the general area. As an avid share it with your own children. When we count our blessings on Thanksgiv- kayaker, I appreciate the special focus on ing Day, we’ll be thinking of you. our most obvious natural resource, the crystal-clear and cool waters of the San Marcos River. My confusion lies in which stretch of river the authors kayaked. They state that “we decided to kayak the Luling Zedler Mill Paddling Trail on the San Marcos Louie Bond, Editor River,” but then say they launched at “John J. Stokes Park” (aka Thompson’s W I 10 O NOVEMBER 2015 MA I L CALL Island), and described their five-mile journey. Just to clarify, while both sites are on the San Marcos River, John J. Stokes Park is nearly 40 river miles upstream from the Luling paddle trail launch location. With diligent research on launch and take-out points, that 40-mile stretch can be broken up into several sepa- rate, family-friendly day trips, ranging between five and 10 miles each. To conclude, while the beautiful San Marcos River might be consid- ered timeless, it is certainly not a time warp, and one should not be lured into thinking they can launch a kayak in San Marcos, paddle five miles and be in Luling in time for a fine barbe- cue lunch. Please float responsibly and leave nothing but ripples. Tim Ellison San Marcos TP&W magazine responds : You’re right about the discrepancy between the paddling trail and the put-in point. The authors have clarified that they started their five-mile trip at John J. Stokes Park in San Marcos and did not paddle the Luling Zedler Mill Paddling Trail. GLAD IN GLADEWATER W hat a surprise to see the wonder- ful article in the July issue about Gladewater (“Elvis Was Here”). We have had several visitors to the museum after reading the article. Thank you for such a comprehensive story about the history and a present-day look at what we have to offer. No amount of money could be placed in the budget for this one article. Elaine Roddy Museum Director, Gladewater Museum TOP OF TEXAS Y our excellent article “Trekking Across the Top of Texas” (August/ September 2015) brought back fond memories of climbing Guadalupe Peak with my wife on our honeymoon in June 1985. We reached the highest point in 43 different states before my wife passed away earlier this year. This peak was always special to us because of how much the view of the “backside of El Capitan” from near the summit (photo on Pages 34-35) resembles the outline of the lower peninsula of our home state of Michigan! Kenyon Stebbins Harbor Springs, Mich. Sound off for Mail Call Let us hear from you! Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine welcomes letters from our readers. Please include your name, address and daytime ­telephone number. Write to us at Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine, 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, TX 78744. Fax us at 512-389-8397 Email us at magazine@tpwd.texas.gov We reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. w ways to Two ne KEEP TEXAS WILD Only $ 30 /year, with $ 22 /plate going to support native wildlife conservation in Texas. www.ConservationPlate.org/wildlife YES, I'M STILL AVAILA BLE! TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 11 NEWS AND VIEWS IN THE TEXAS OUTDOORS RECYCLED REEFS Movement to reclaim oyster shells creates new habitat for sea life. Consider the lowly oyster. It doesn’t have flashy moves; it just sits there on the bay bottom. It has no pretty colors or interesting fins; instead it looks like a lumpy rock. Yet scientists have discovered that this ugly duckling holds important benefits for coastal ecosystems. Many people know oysters are tasty, but few realize their vital ecological role. Oyster reefs provide habitat for bottom-dwelling fish and invertebrates, attracting larger game fish. Reefs also stabilize the bay bottom and break wave energy, preventing shoreline erosion. Oysters act as natural filters to remove silt and contaminants. A single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day, and large, healthy oyster populations filter huge volumes of seawater, improving water quality and clarity. That’s why more efforts are springing up along the Texas coast to save the oyster, including programs to reroute shells from landfills back into bays. 12 O NOVEMBER 2015 Oyster boosters have their work cut out for them as a “triple whammy” has whacked these filter-feeders in recent years. Hurricane Ike destroyed nearly 60 percent of Galveston Bay reef habitat. The multiyear drought in Texas made oysters prone to predators and disease. The BP oil spill effectively shut down oystering in much of Louisiana and Mississippi, shifting harvest pressure to Texas. The upshot: Some Texas bays have been closed by midseason for the first time in recent years because there are fewer legal-sized oysters. To address overharvesting, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is working with the oyster industry to tighten regulations. During the last nine years, many steps have been taken to further protect oyster resources, such as decreasing the commercial harvest limit from 150 to 50 sacks per day, reducing local fishing times, establishing a shell recovery program and capping the number of licenses available. Now there’s a complementary approach that’s gaining steam — restoring oyster reefs. Sink Your Shucks, an oyster shell recycling program, was started in 2009 by the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. “We talk about shucked oyster shells TOP PHOTOS COURTESY OF HARTE RESEARCH INSTITUTE; BOTTOM PHOTO COURTESY OF TEXAS A&M - CORPUS CHRISTI in the landfill being a resource out of place,” says Jennifer Pollack, who helped create Sink Your Shucks. “Instead of being disposed of in the landfill, oyster shells can be easily recycled back into bay waters where they are most needed to create new reef habitat.” Every week, college students haul shucked oyster shells in specially designed bins from restaurants like Water Street Seafood and wholesale markets like Groomer’s Seafood. The shells are stockpiled at the Port of Corpus Christi to dry in the sun for six months before they go back into Texas bays. Led by program co-coordinator Gail Sutton of the Harte Institute, Sink Your Shucks has reclaimed more than 638,000 pounds of shells to create more than 14 acres of reef in Copano Bay and Aransas Bay. Scientists estimate this new reef area can produce an additional 325,000 pounds of fish, crabs and shrimp per year, worth nearly $250,000 each year. A similar program is in place in Galveston, with restaurants and volunteers joining forces to recycle oyster shells for Galveston Bay. The educational awareness generated is perhaps as important as the conservation achieved. “ We bui ld reefs t hrough community-based events, and although those reefs are smaller in terms of acreage, they have the biggest bang for the buck in teaching people about the bay that’s in their backyard,” Pollack says. “We’ve had more than 1,000 volunteers come out and learn about natural resources. I can tell you that each of those people is a better environmental steward as a result.” For information on how to help, see oysterrecycling.org and galvbay.org/ how-we-protect-the-bay/oyster-conservation. —Tom Harvey Don’t Think It Could Happen? THINK AGAIN. CALL TO JOIN! Preserving the sport of hunting through education, conservation and the protection of hunters’ rights. WWW.HOUSTONSAFARICLUB.ORG · 713.623.8844 SIGHTS & SOUNDS TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE TV AND RADIO T E L E V I S I O N LOOK FOR THESE STORIES IN THE COMING WEEKS Nov. 1–7: Paddling near Dallas; shotgun tips; restoring the forest; desert bighorn history; prairie dogs. Nov. 8–14: Protecting the night sky; Carpe Diem Ranch; historical rock art; Canadian River ranch vistas. Nov. 15–21: Texas quail; Balmorhea fun; early RV camping; Yturria Ranch wildlife. Nov. 22–28: Wild firefighters; the cup crusaders; looking back at Engeling Wildlife Management Area; rabbit food. Nov. 29–Dec. 5: A hunter’s refuge; Lavaca Rio Ranch; falconry; pines in East Texas. There are still a lot of places in Texas where the stars shine at night. Watch the week of Nov. 8-14. TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE Winner of 12 Emmy Awards, our ­television series is broadcast ­throughout Texas on local PBS ­affiliates. In stereo with closed captions. www.tpwd.texas.gov/tv RADIO YOUR RADIO GUIDE TO THE GREAT OUTDOORS Passport to Texas is your guide to the great Texas outdoors. Any time you tune in, you’ll remember why you love Texas. Go to www.passporttotexas.org to find a station near you that airs the series. PASSPORT TO TEXAS Join host Cecilia Nasti weekdays for a 90-second excursion into the Texas Outdoors. Find a station near you, or listen on the Web at www.passporttotexas.org TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 13 Deer Sought for Disease Sampling TPWD steps up monitoring after discovery of chronic wasting disease. With the recent discovery of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in two captive- deer-breeding facilities in South- Central Texas, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will be stepping up efforts to strategically sample hunter-harvested deer at a greater level during the 2015–16 hunting season. Hunters are encouraged to assist with this statewide monitoring effort by voluntarily submitting samples this fall. TPWD biologists will collect samples and submit them to the Texas A&M Veterinary Diagnostic Lab at no cost to the hunter. Tissue samples from the heads of deer must be collected within 24 hours of harvest (up to 48 hours if kept chilled). It is important that the deer head not be frozen. Since 2003, TPWD biologists have been monitoring the state’s free- ranging deer population for CWD. Using statistical sampling tables commonly used by animal disease experts, biologists set a sampling goal that would detect the disease with 95 percent confidence if at least one out of every 100 deer was infected. Thus far, biologists have collected nearly 30,000 samples from hunter- harvested deer across eight ecological regions. To date, CWD has not been found in Texas free-ranging white- tailed deer. CWD was first detected in Texas in 2012 in free-ranging mule deer in far West Texas. The sampling strategy for the 2015– 16 hunting season is being refined to target disease risk levels within the state’s 33 unique resource management units (wildlife conservation areas that TPWD uses for deer management decisions). Criteria for establishing risk levels include factors such as YOU R BIR DIN G HEA DQUART ERS IN SOU THE AST TEX AS Cattail Marsh Wetlands • Hillebrandt Bayou • Big Thicket National Preserve Sabine Woods • McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge • Sea Rim State Park Neches River Boat Tours • Beaumont Botanical Gardens • Sabine Pass Planning for The Great Texas Birding Classic? Visit BeaumontCVB.com/birding to check out Southeast Texas birding trail maps and hotel information. 1-800-392-4401 14 O NOVEMBER 2015 deer density, susceptible species importation history and proximity to a CWD-positive site. Sampling goals will range from 60 to 433 deer for each resource management unit, depending on the assigned risk level. Achieving these goals will result in more than 7,000 samples. TPWD will also specifically target sampling efforts within a five- mile radius around the CWD index facility in Medina County to determine the prevalence and geographic extent of the disease in that specific area. “In the wake of our increased concern about CWD, we are ramping up our sampling effort statewide,” says Mitch Lockwood, TPWD big game program director. “We will be collecting samples from deer and elk and other cervid species in every county where deer hunting occurs.” Chronic wasting disease was first recognized in 1967 in captive mule deer in Colorado and has been documented in captive or free-ranging deer in 23 states. CWD among cervids is a progressive, fatal disease that commonly results in altered behavior as a result of microscopic changes made to the brain. An animal may carry the disease for years without any outward indication, but in the latter stages, signs may include listlessness, lowering of the head, weight loss, repetitive walking in set patterns and lack of responsiveness. To date, there is no evidence that CWD poses a risk to humans or non-cervids, but as a precaution, health organizations recommend that people not consume meat from infected animals. Hunters wishing to submit samples can go online to find their local TPWD biologists, listed by county at tpwd.texas. gov/biologist. TPWD anticipates test results could take three to four weeks to process. More information about CWD, including safe carcass handling tips and precautions, can be found online at tpwd.texas.gov/CWD. — Steve Lightfoot What will you discover? Explore the wildlife and beauty of Texas with 9 regional driving maps. The Great Texas Wildlife Trail maps feature parks, nature centers, historic sites, hiking trails and other hotspots ideal for wildlife viewing and outdoor exploration. Clearly marked routes, GPS coordinates and contacts for the 950+ sites make this a must- have tool on your next Texas adventure. FIND INTERACTIVE MAPS AND ROUTES AT tpwd.texas.gov/wildlifetrails P Metroplex Getaway THIS Ray Roberts Lake State Park Johnson Branch offers hiking, biking and fishing on Ray Roberts Lake in North Texas. PHOTOS CLOCKWISE: EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD; EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD; DANIELLE BRADLEY / TPWD Ray Roberts Lake State Park Bike Trails When the work week drags and the traffic snags, nothing sounds better to many Dallas and Fort Worth residents than escaping to a nearby park. Just over an hour away from the DFW Metroplex, the Johnson Branch Unit of Ray Roberts Lake State Park is the perfect outdoor destination for those who want to reconnect with nature, whether it’s for a week, a weekend or just an afternoon. The lesser-known of the two main state park units on Ray Roberts Lake, Johnson Branch is located on the north side of the lake near the small town of Valley View. Never heard of it? Don’t let the lack of notoriety fool you; Johnson Branch has a cornucopia of outdoor activities for visitors of all ages and interests. 16 O NOVEMBER 2015 Recently ranked 31st in the nation for bass fishing by Bassmaster magazine, Ray Roberts is a popular fishing destination for all kinds of anglers. Launch your boat from the rarely crowded ramp at Johnson Branch. Perhaps you will reel in a record- breaking bass — the current largemouth bass lake record is 15.18 pounds. Bringing some first-time anglers with you? Between the tackle loaner program and the fully stocked Kid Fish Pond, Johnson Branch is a great place to catch that first fish and get hooked on the sport. This picturesque pond sets the scene for a fishing experience you and your young ones won’t soon forget. Love the outdoors, but not a big fan of worms and slippery fish? You can explore more than 12 miles of hiking trails at Johnson Branch, including three miles of paved trail. Explorers may be serenaded by the ka-ka-ka-kow-kow-kwop-kwop of the yellow-billed cuckoo, delighted by the bright red and green flashes of a male painted bunting flying from tree to tree or bathed in the sweet smell of Chickasaw plum blossoms. Don’t be surprised to find a nine-banded armadillo foraging milkweed flowers and tall, slender prairie grasses like little bluestem. Looking to camp at Johnson Branch? Choose from walk-in campsites or water and electric sites for tents or RVs. Many of these sites have either direct water access or views of the lake. With the recent summer flooding, the park was closed for most of the summer, and it reopened to limited along the trail. If you prefer to do your trail exploring on two wheels and at a much more exhilarating speed, the mountain bike trails at Johnson Branch have your name written all over them. The trails range from beginner to expert, providing challenges for all mountain biking skill levels. With just over nine miles to explore, you’re bound to be busy all afternoon. Situated in a blend of three distinct eco-regions (Eastern Cross Timbers, Blackland Prairie and Grand Prairie), Ray Roberts Lake State Park offers a unique natural experience. More than 300 plant species grow here, including towering post oak trees, delicate use in mid-September. Ray Roberts Lake is at capacity, with plenty of water for swimming, fishing and boating. Picnicking, bird watching and a large variety of ranger-led programs are also available. No matter your interests — birds, bugs and mammals or kayaking and fishing — there is sure to be a program you’ll want to attend. Call ahead to check on conditions and activities before visiting. The Johnson Branch Unit is located between Denton and Gainesville on FM 3002, just seven miles east of Interstate 35. For more information, call (940) 637-2294 or visit tpwd.texas. gov/rayrobertslake. —Danielle Bradley TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 17 P Spiraling Blooms S T H I Ladies’ tresses orchids rise like delicate corkscrews. The delicate orchids were waving PHOTO © JOE LIGGIO among the bunch grasses as the morning frost hung dewdrops on their heads, looking like white candles sparkling between the majestic post oak and blackjack oak trees. It was the first time I had encountered ladies’ tresses orchids, during a botanical survey in the fall of 1992 at Fort Boggy State Park. Elray Nixon, emeritus plant ecologist at Stephen F. Austin State University, pointed out two different species in the post oak savanna. Ladies’ tresses orchids (Spiranthes species) appear across Central, East and North Texas landscapes and are among the most common orchids in the state. Thirteen of 42 species of ladies’ tresses occur in Texas. Spiranthes comes from the Greek words speira (“spiral”) and anthos (“flower”). The twisted, spiraling appearance of orchids in this genus is also reflected in common species names like ladies’ tresses and corkscrew orchids. The spiraling flower arrangement is the result of uneven cell growth, which results in a twisting of the flower stems. Ladies’ tresses orchids are members of the orchid family, perennial herbs growing from fleshy root systems that are sometimes thick and appear tuberous. The flowers are white, cream or light green and grow along the upper part of the slender, erect stem, which varies from one to two feet tall. The flowers grow in two to four spiraling rows, forming a dense spike about six inches long. The individual flowers curve downward slightly with a nodding appearance. The labellum (or lip) is about a half-inch long, with a flaring, crimped margin that acts as a landing platform for insects to pollinate the flower. Ladies’ tresses orchids are one of the few orchids that have fragrance. Ladies’ tresses orchids in Texas occur in prairies, oak savannas, pine savannas, bogs, stream bottoms, swamps and shallow soils in rocky glades 18 O NOVEMBER 2015 and roadsides. Ladies’ tresses orchids respond to prescribed burns, and as a result, naturally induced fires most likely play a role in their reproduction. Many bee species visit the flowers of ladies’ tresses orchids for nectar. White-tailed deer and cottontail rabbits occasionally browse the foliage and flowers, but due to their inconspicuous nature, ladies’ tresses orchids are often overlooked. The most widespread ladies’ tresses orchid in Texas is the nodding ladies’ tresses (Spiranthes cernua), blooming from late September through December. In Texas, they occur in the granite Llano Uplift in places such as Inks Lake State Park and the edges of vernal pools at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. They are found in blackland and coastal prairie remnants, post oak savannas and chalk limestone glades in eastern Texas. These flowers are arranged on the stalk as intertwined double spirals, making the individual spirals not readily discernible. Southern ladies’ tresses (Spiranthes lacera var. gracilis) can be encountered September through November in eastern Texas. They occur throughout the blackland prairies and coastal prairies and most commonly appear in post oak savannas, including places such as Bastrop and Lake Somerville state parks. Other fall blooming ladies’ tresses orchids include the giant spiral orchid, Great Plains ladies’ tresses, fragrant ladies’ tresses, oval ladies’ tresses and the endemic (restricted to Texas) Navasota ladies’ tresses. —Jason Singhurst P Redheaded Stranger H T I S Once absent from most of the state, house finches can be found across Texas today. songster in your backyard has been around? Not the northern cardinal or summer tanager — they’re entirely red. I’m talking about the feeder-loving house finch. Often confused with its close cousin, the purple finch, house finch males sport a brighter shade of red on head and chest. Purple finches are uncommon winter visitors to Texas, while the house finch can be found year-round. The female house finch is dingy brown with heavy streaks and speckles — no red head or chest. Best detected by a rich, warbling song, this bird often builds its nest deep inside hanging baskets or potted plants around the porch or patio. As the bird’s name Eye problems A pathogenic bacterium that causes a form of conjunctivitis has spread rapidly in house finches across the eastern United States. This disease, known appropriately as house finch eye disease, causes the birds to have red, swollen, runny or crusty eyes. To concerned backyard birders: There’s nothing you can do to save an infected bird, but regularly cleaning your bird feeders and bird baths can help reduce infection. PHOTO © JAN WEGENER / FOTONATURA “Redfish’ing a t it’s best!” F IS H E R M A N C H A R L IE • AV ID 20 O NOVEMBER 2015 implies, it is usually associated with urban or suburban areas except in far West Texas, where it can be found in desert scrub far from humans. In decades-old literature, the house finch was called “linnet.” That name, however, is completely missing from a 1911 paper published in the journal The Auk by Howard Lacey on the bird life of the Kerrville area. There’s no way that Lacey, a careful and conscientious observer, could have missed this colorful and loud songster. It would take two decades for the linnet to reach the area near Lacey’s ranch. Since he died in 1929, we don’t know if he witnessed the colonization. By the 1974 publication of Harry C. Oberholser’s book The Bird Life of Texas, the house finch had moved across the entire Hill Country, where its breeding range is described as being in places with “low humidity and hilly terrain.” The author notes that “permanent establishment in Texas east of Austin seems doubtful.” How times have changed since then. Originally a western species, house finches were introduced in the 1940s in New York to liven up city life with their bright color and lively song. Interestingly, those eastern birds quickly spread westward like wildfire; within a half-century, they met the original population, basically around the Interstate 35 corridor in Texas. Today, the bird’s distribution across Texas is virtually seamless. I remember their arrival in 1989 in East Texas, followed soon by breeding and, at last, the permanency we see today. What once was a stranger in town has settled well into urban and suburban settings, lending color and song to our backyards. —Cliff Shackelford PHOTO © JAN WEGENER Ever wonder how long that redheaded WE'VE HAD RAIN. THE PLAYA LAKES ARE FULL. Birders, come take in the Soul-Satisfying Views of the Pampa area Playa lakes, and discover the native and migratory birds that inhabit them. 806-669-3241 | www.pampachamber.com P THIS Capturing the Colors of Fall Autumn provides creative chances to photograph the vivid beauty of the season. Shooting upward toward the sky on a sunny day will produce saturated colors and highlight the contrast between fall colors and blue sky. Oh, it’s a long long while From May to December But the days grow short When you reach September When the autumn weather Turns leaves to flame One hasn’t got time For the waiting game. September Song Willie Nelson was thinking about photographing the Texas autumn color when he sang those lines to September Song. In a state where the verdant greens of spring and early summer seem to transform to shades of brown almost overnight, there can be, with the help of proper rains and temperatures, a brief portal of time in which green gives way to a palette of vivid yellows, oranges and reds that rival those found anywhere in the country. PHOTOS BY EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD Perhaps 22 O NOVEMBER 2015 Because of this typically short burst of color, combined with shorter days, we often miss some potentially great photos. Willie’s admonition that “one hasn’t got time for the waiting game” is especially relevant for any photographer wanting to get the best results in such a small window of shooting opportunity. Autumn is a great time to expand your photographic vision. Typically, we get stuck in a rut of seeing and photographing the world that is straight in front of us. It’s been said that we view life in the horizontal. Autumn foliage invites us to look up, look down – look all around. By looking upward and exploring the contrasting colors against the canopy of a blue sky as well as looking down at the smallest details in the tapestry of fallen leaves at your feet, you instantly add new creative possibilities. You will even find that, by using various focal lengths such as wide angle, zoom and macro, you can point the camera in one direction and get totally different images of the same subject and its surroundings. Because of the time of year and the sun’s lower position in the sky, autumn light offers a r tistic possibi lities, regardless of whether it’s sunny or cloudy. Sunny days are for looking up and photographing the rays of light as they transilluminate brilliantly colored leaves or grasses against the sky. Colors during sunny days will be vivid and saturated. Colors on cloudy days (or after the sun goes down) will be more pastel, making it an ideal time for looking down and using the diffused light to bring out the delicate details of a forest floor. Perhaps the most useful tool to have in any camera bag for accentuating foliage and sky color is the venerable polarizing filter. Because most foliage has a waxy sheen, the underlying color is often degraded by the sky’s reflection. By removing the reflection, the polarizer reveals the beauty beneath. A word of warning: Always use a polarizer judiciously! Polarized colors can become too saturated, especially when including a blue sky in the frame on a sunny day. Also, since the polarizer cuts down on the amount of light entering the lens and requires a longer shutter speed, it is always a Softer light — such as the diffused light of a cloudy day — will bring out the delicate details of fallen foliage on a forest floor. good practice to use a tripod to avoid any camera movement. Autumn color and water seem to go hand in hand. You will often find yourself around a lake, pond or running stream. This is the time to include reflections in your photo for an additional element of interest to an already beautiful setting. In a stream setting, you might try including the swirling movement of water around any fallen or submerged leaves. Here again is a good time to use a polarizer not only to eliminate unwanted reflections but also to warrant a slower shutter speed, which can give the water that “silky” quality. A sturdy tripod is definitely needed here! Autumn has always been my favorite season, and in deference to Willie, I think the poet William Cullen Bryant summed up the reason other photographers are drawn to its beauty with his quote, “Autumn ... the year’s last, loveliest smile.” Photographers have always been drawn to smiles. — Earl Nottingham Hermann SonS Fraternal InSurance Insuring a better future for Texans at all stages of life since 1861. • Whole life • Term life • AnnuiTies 800-234-4124 Hermann Sons Fraternal Insurance | Traditional ... http://www.texashermannsons.org/ Please send questions and comments to Earl. (earl.nottingham@tpwd.texas.gov) For more tips on outdoor photography, visit the magazine’s photography page. (www.tpwmagazine.com/photography) www.hermannsons.org • Facebook http://kaywa.me/E5WAK TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 23 Download the Kaywa QR Code Reader (App Store &Android Market) and scan your code! SKILL BUILDER / Ky Harkey WINDPROOF, WATERPROOF AND WARM Dressing for weather makes any outing more comfortable. I remember the coldest day I ever spent in a park: I was a 14-year- old Boy Scout on a rainy November backpacking trip to Lost Maples State Natural Area. I can still picture the campsite perfectly. I guess misery has a way of creating vivid memories. I suffered on that cold morning because I had broken the cardinal rule of dressing for the outdoors: I wore cotton clothing and I let it get wet. I’ve learned my lesson since that chilly morning, and with better preparation, I’ve felt warmer in colder conditions. It all comes down to protecting yourself from the wind, water and cold air around you. O NOVEMBER 2015 While a simple trash bag might keep rain and wind at bay as easily as a rain jacket, high-performance materials like Gore-Tex shield you while also allowing your sweat to escape, preventing an uncomfortable sauna inside your jacket. To complete your protection: Add small accessories like gloves, a wool hat or a balaclava ski mask. These are the very important outer layers that protect cold-sensitive areas like the nose, fingers and ears. Winter is a beautiful time to enjoy the wild and scenic trails of Texas. By layering clothing and choosing fabrics wisely, we can still create warm memories on cold days — a luxury I missed that November morning at Lost Maples. Here are a few more tips I’ve picked up on many cold weather trips since then: • Start your hike a little cold. You’ll warm up in the first 10 minutes and will avoid breaking a sweat. • Zip lightweight gloves into the pockets of your outer layer so they will always be there when you need them. • Keep a pair of warm socks in the bottom of your sleeping bag so you’ll always have toasty toes at night. • Carry a small piece of a sleeping pad with you. This will prevent heat loss to the ground when you sit on that cold rock or bench. O PHOTOS BY CHASE FOUNTAIN / TPWD 24 Dressing for the cold starts with the base layer. That morning at Lost Maples, the cotton shirt and blue jeans I wore had been soaked from a night of rain. Wet cotton stays wet, and that moisture against your skin causes you to lose warmth much quicker than when you’re dry. When choosing a base layer, find clothing that is thin and made of a synthetic or wool fabric. Unlike cotton, these materials “wick” moisture (rain or sweat) away from your skin. The result? They can still keep you warm if they get wet. On top of your base layer, your mid-layers insulate you by trapping your body heat and keeping it against your skin. Vests and lightweight or heavy jackets insulate your torso, while long underwear or fleece pants can keep your legs warm. Just like your base layer, avoid cotton on these layers — fleece or synthetic insulation is popular. Backpackers who are interested in going lightweight and compact can use goose-down insulation, but remember, down does not insulate when wet. This approach of layering (rather than using a single large parka) allows us to make small adjustments to our clothing to help regulate our body temperature as it changes when we hike uphill or when a breeze picks up. In the summer, a gentle breeze feels nice because it moves hot air away from our skin and encourages evaporation of our sweat, cooling us down. The wind has the same effect on us in the winter; it’s just not what we’re looking for when we’re already cold. Outer layers should consist of rainproof/windproof jackets and pants that help protect from the elements. Share the love with your kids! Outfitting Texans since 1970 for Adventure, Travel & Fun! STORE LOCATIONS Styles for all ages Austin • Dallas • Houston San Antonio • Southlake Days in the Field S By Melissa Gaskill DESTINATION: PAINT ROCK T R A V E L T I M E F R O M : AUSTIN – 2.75 hours / DALLAS – 3.5 hours / EL PASO – 6 hours HOUSTON – 5 hours / SAN ANTONIO – 2.5 hours / LUBBOCK – 3 hours / BROWNSVILLE – 6.5 hours Ready to Rock Native artists provide natural murals in this Concho County town. 26 O NOVEMBER 2015 Guide Tony Plutino points out fossil stromatolites on the Llano River. At right, pictographs adorn a rocky bluff outside Paint Rock. nearby fishing ponds, stocked with bass and catfish. Saturday morning, I made breakfast in the fully equipped kitchen, then headed south to Fort McKavett State Historic Site to find some of the best-preserved military post structures from the Texas Indian Wars of the mid-1800s. I followed a self-guided walking tour of restored officers’ quarters, barracks and dead house (aka the morgue) and ruins around windswept parade grounds. The site also includes Government Springs, which serve as the headwaters of the San Saba River and provided water for the fort. I traveled downriver — and further back in time — to Presidio de San Sabá in Menard. The Spanish built a timber fort here in 1757 to protect civilians prospecting (unsuccessfully) nearby for silver and gold. A stone presidio replaced it in 1761, but given the lack of mining success and continued hostility from Comanche and Wichita natives, soldiers abandoned the site in 1768. I learned all this on another self-guided tour, which began at a covered pavilion, continued through ruins of walls and a reconstructed corner tower and then crossed to the opposite tower overlooking the river. My historic curiosity sated, I drove north for lunch at Eola School Restaurant and Brewery, at the intersection of County Road 1520 and FM 381. The school closed in 1982, and its 22,000-square-foot building sat empty until Mark Cannon purchased it in 2004, opening a LEFT PHOTO © MIKE BARTOSZEK; RIGHT PHOTO BY EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD ometimes I think every small Texas town now sports the same chain hotels, big box stores and restaurant franchises. Any town could be any other town, the unique character of each disappearing. Then I travel deep into the Texas Hill Country and realize, with relief, that this isn’t true. One could argue that the town of Paint Rock takes things to the extreme, with no hotels or restaurants at all. But it does have some of the most astounding rock art in Texas and places to stay and eat nearby. On my way from Austin, I took U.S. Highway 87 from Brady to Melvin for dinner at Jacoby’s Cafe. Jason and Kelli Jacoby opened the cafe at their feed operation in 1981, and it quickly became a hub of this small community — everyone in the dining room seemed to know everyone else. I ordered an 8-ounce dinner steak, since steaks are available only on Friday and Saturday. The cafe’s beef comes from the family cow-calf operation, and many of the better cuts end up in its ground beef, making for especially tasty half- pound burgers, chicken-fried steak and hamburger steak. The setting sun gave the rolling hills a golden glow as I drove to my home for the night, Dry Hollow Hideaway, a 700-acre ranch about seven miles outside Paint Rock. On my last visit about five years ago, owners Charles and Nancy Becker told me that the large stone guest house served as an Army barrack and dates back to at least 1949. The house sports a wide, covered porch and two TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 27 28 O NOVEMBER 2015 Clockwise from top: Presidio de San Sabá was built by the Spanish in the 1700s as a frontier outpost; Eola School Restaurant and Brewery serves up burgers, pizza and beer in a former schoolhouse; the Llano River meanders through the hills at the Dos Rios Resort near Mason. a winding ranch road to the bluff. It runs east to west along the Concho River and has provided natural shelter for some 1,200 years to dozens of different cultures. Jumano, Apache, Tonkawa and other tribes likely made the earlier images and Comanches the later ones, which date from the mid-1700s to the late 1800s. Images include handprints, birds, human figures, suns and symbols. Some of the images are illuminated by the rays of the sun only during the summer and winter solstices. Campbell pointed out some of the more striking pictographs and offered possible interpretations of their meanings. Archeologists and others have come up with these interpretations, and, while they make sense to me, we’ll never know their accuracy for sure. Not even current Native American leaders can say with certainty (Campbell has asked). But not knowing just adds to the mystery and power of these special images. I was happy to discover that the Campbells have four grown grandchildren who will carry on the tours when Campbell decides to finally (and deservedly) retire. Normally, steak dinners are a rare event, and I had already had one this weekend, but just a few miles down the road lies the famous, at least in these parts, Lowake Steak House. When the Concho, San Saba and Llano Valley railroad lines built track from Miles in Runnels County to Paint Rock in 1909, two farmers donated land for a town at the line’s midpoint. The town moniker comes from their names, Lowe and Schlake. Today, farm fields surround Continued on Page 52 TOP PHOTO © MIKE BARTOSZEK; BOTTOM TWO PHOTOS BY EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD restaurant in a former classroom. In 2006, Cannon started a brewery in what had been the auditorium (no doubt a few school officials rolled over in their graves). Today, he serves two beers on tap, Farm Ale and Windmill Pale Ale, and sells them by the half-gallon growler. For kids of all ages, Cannon makes Hoot Beer, an intensely flavored root beer he is happy to turn into an ice cream float. The menu includes hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken-fried steak and pizza with homemade dough. I can enthusiastically vouch for both the burgers and pizza. My next stop, the Campbell Ranch just outside Paint Rock, contains what gave the town its name — some 1,500 pictographs in black, white, yellow and red scattered along a rock bluff. The majority of the images are red, an impressive feat given that the artists would have needed hematite, or iron ore rocks, from at least 100 miles away. European settler D.E. Sims saw the painted rocks in 1870 and purchased the land around them. His granddaughter Kay Campbell and her husband, Fred, now own the ranch, and Kay (despite being in her 80s) provides guided tours. I had called ahead for an appointment, and we met in the small visitors center the Campbells created from an old ranch house. Campbell gave an engaging and informative talk (which taught me about the hematite, among other fun facts) and then drove me down This 4-carat stunner was created from the aftermath of Mount St. Helens eruption! 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Would I find the strength within me needed to pull the trigger and take my first deer? My father was an avid hunter. I relished the delicious meals that were the natural result of his passion, but I never knew exactly what went on between the time he donned his camouflage and walked out the door and later returned with meat for the family. My only interaction was “petting” the trophy heads mounted on the living room wall. In middle school, I finally got my invitation to accompany my dad on a hunt. I would finally find out what happened with the gun he slung over his shoulder. My first impression was that being outdoors made my dad happy. There was a look on his face I’d never really seen before, a peaceful serenity. From the blind, we sat silently watching for white-tailed deer, enjoying a serenading chorus of cooing and trilling songbirds and glimpsing wildlife I never saw growing up in the city. The intoxicating aroma of a herd of javelina was strange and feral; to this day, I can still smell 32 O NOVEMBER 2015 it. The sharp contrast to my city life opened a window I never wanted to close. Opportunity knocked when a chance to hunt came along last fall. I signed up online for a hunter education course to get ready (tpwd. texas.gov/education/hunter-education). And, of course, I extended an invitation to my dad to help me prepare. After all, he’s the one who got me interested. GETTING SCHOOLED After my initial excitement wore off, a few worries started to creep in. What are the rules? I sure didn’t want to break them. I didn’t really know much about handling a gun. What if my ignorance caused an accident? Yikes. Hunter education helps with all of that. It’s mandatory for those born on or after Sept. 2, 1971, (like me) but also beneficial to any first- time hunters or those who haven’t been in the I proudly took my hunter education course completion certificate to the desk at Cabela’s and bought my first hunting license. I guess I’m a hunter now. PHOTO © LARRY DITTO field for a while (like my dad). Children as young as age 9 can get certified. Our first lesson was equipment. We learned the parts of a firearm, different types of firearms, basic components of ammunition, how to match firearms and ammunition correctly, the range of each firearm, also the cleaning and storing of firearms and ammunition. There was a lot to learn, but it was fascinating. I was exposed to a wide variety of rifles I never knew existed, including muzzleloaders. I learned new lessons, like the importance of the correct ammunition for your firearm. For example, you cannot put .270 Winchester ammo into a .270 Weatherby rifle. If the ammunition you put into the chamber does not match the ammo specified on the barrel, you could cause an explosion, which could injure or kill you or anyone nearby. (Did I mention how glad I was to have this class?) Another thing that blew my mind was the distance a bullet can travel. A fired 7 mm Magnum rifle bullet can travel more than three miles (five miles at a 12,000-foot elevation). It is important to know the direction of your shot and what lies beyond to prevent injury and damage to people, animals or objects. We learned how to be safe hunters, including how to safely carry our firearms in the field, how to load and unload equipment and what constitutes a safe zone of fire. I paid careful attention to the four main causes of hunting accidents: hunter judgment mistakes, safety rule violations, lack of control and practice and mechanical failure. I didn’t want to become a statistic. We also learned the importance of staying up to date with state rules and regulations, easily found in the Outdoor Annual (tpwd.texas.gov/ regulations/outdoor-annual) each year. There’s a handy app now too (tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/ outdoor-annual/app), so you can pull up the rules no matter how remote your location. You’ll find the season dates for each species, along with bag limits for all game animals and all other regulations for legal harvest for hunting and fishing in the state of Texas. Other hunter education topics that day included being a responsible and ethical hunter, how to prepare for a safe hunting trip, how to deal with medical and survival emergencies while out in the field, basic shooting skills, hunting strategies and wildlife identification. After a full day of class, Dad and I took our tests, and we both passed. I proudly took my hunter education course completion certificate to TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 33 the desk at Cabela’s and bought my first hunting license. I guess I’m a hunter now. A LITTLE TO THE LEFT Enter lingering worry No. 2: What if I miss? Or worse, what if I only wound the deer and then can’t find him? The answer, of course: Practice makes perfect. Dad and I met helpful colleagues who are great outdoorsmen at the Lone Star Gun Range in Lockhart to get started. This outdoor range had separate areas for handguns and rifles; I headed straight for the rifle range to practice shooting. My nerves were jangling, and all my little fears fluttered by. I had heard about the kick that rifles give, and it made me wince to think of it. An endless stream of questions flooded my mind. Would it bruise my shoulder? Would it hurt? If it hurt, what would I do during my hunt? After setting up the target, I took my seat at the firing line and readied myself to shoot my first hunting rifle. “The line is hot!” a man shouted next to us. I looked through the scope, lined up the crosshairs on the target and squeezed. I hit the target, which was a good start, but my mark was too far to the left. In my head, I heard my hunter education instructor stressing the importance of having a clean shot to the heart so the animal will feel no pain. I was determined to practice to make the bullet go precisely where I aimed it. After several rounds of practice, I was getting closer toward the middle but was still to the left of the center of the target. One colleague noticed that I kept anticipating the shot before I pulled the trigger, so he offered to reload the rifle for my next round. I looked away as he reloaded, as instructed, and then reset myself for my next practice round. I lined the crosshairs up with the center of the target and pulled, but there was nothing. No shot. He laughed and said he pretended to reload to see how I reacted when pulling the trigger. After setting myself up, I would anticipate the sound of the shot and the pressure of the butt of the gun against my right shoulder, which caused me to jerk slightly toward the left away from my body. Even when there was no shot, apparently! He told me to take a deep breath once I was aligned with the target, then pull. The rifle was reloaded, for real this time. I adjusted, took a breath … and squeezed. Pop! We looked through the binoculars and scope and 34 O NOVEMBER 2015 saw that my shot was significantly closer. Finally! After a few more rounds with a steadier hand, I felt comfortable enough to know that I could hit the target while out in the field. INTO THE WOODS Then, it was here, the day I had been preparing for and anxiously looking forward to for months. My hunt had arrived. My hunting mentor Steve Lightfoot and I arrived in Lampasas, greeted at the gate by a herd of cattle. We packed up our gear and headed to the blind. Our field of hunt was not far from the 100-year- old ranch house where we parked. The beckoning clearing gleamed golden in the midafternoon sun, and in the middle of that field stood a juniper tree with an elevated box blind leaning against it. We climbed into the blind, got comfortable and waited silently. After a while, I noticed my senses heightening from the forced silence. Leaves were breezily rustling, a bee was buzzing around the windows, animals scurried in the shadows around us, and the sweet fragrance of the juniper tree we hid in began to seep into the blind. After the bustle of work and city life, I felt completely at ease. I felt that happiness I had seen on Dad’s face so many years ago. I was pretty sure my smile was the mirror image of his that memorable day. Just as I was basking in the scenery and daydreaming about my childhood, Steve whispered to me and pointed in the direction of the feeder about 50 yards from us. I eased up to the front window and noticed a doe emerging from a culvert just beyond the tree line. Scampering behind was a fawn that heedlessly headed straight to the feeder. I gasped and pointed out of the window excitedly. “Don’t stick anything out the window,” Steve warned me, smiling. “If they see you, you can lose your chance.” I drew my finger back from the window, a bit embarrassed, and tried to curb my enthusiasm. Slowly, small groups of white-tailed deer made their way to the offered meal, pausing often to look in any direction they heard a noise. Then, I saw him. A seven-point buck fearlessly glided into the field. Steve and I looked at each other. Steve’s look said that if I was going to harvest a deer that day, this would be the one. I slowly raised the rifle to the frame of the window, centered my scope and waited, barely breathing, for my moment. PHOTOS BY CHASE FOUNTAIN / TPWD The author takes aim during a practice session at a gun range (above) and gets some pointers from her dad (right). TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 35 ETTING STARTED TAKE HUNTER EDUCATION: Hunter education is mandatory for anyone born on or after Sept. 2, 1971. Courses are offered all over the state. LEARN TEXAS GAME LAWS AND REGULATIONS: Familiarize yourself with statewide hunting regulations and check for any special regulations that may apply. Regulations can be found in the Outdoor Annual (available in printed form, on the TPWD website and as a mobile app). PURCHASE A HUNTING LICENSE: Hunting licenses, sold across the state and available online, are required to legally hunt in Texas (and depending on what you hunt, special stamps may be needed). GET YOUR EQUIPMENT READY AND PRACTICE: It’s important to match the firearm you use to the kind of game you wish to hunt. Sporting goods stores that specialize in hunting and firearms are an excellent place to see what’s available. Being an accurate shooter is also important. Maintain and develop your shooting skills at rifle and clay target ranges. FIND A PLACE TO HUNT: Texas has nearly 200 public hunting areas, including wildlife management areas, state parks and leased private lands. More information can be found at: tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt. PHOTO BY EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD A seven-point buck fearlessly glided into the field … if I was going to harvest a deer that G day, this would be the one. 36 O NOVEMBER 2015 The buck paced back and forth, and, just as I was about to aim, something spooked the herd and they all scattered. My buck was gone. I’d not taken the shot. I was stunned. I didn’t know what to do. Would they come back? Had I lost my chance due to my own hesitation? My mind was a flurry of questions. I was about to give up hope for the day until I noticed one of the does shyly peeking out from the trees and tentatively crossing to get to the feeder once again. Seeing her safely cross, the remaining does, spikes and fawns slowly walked back out from hiding to try to finish their meal. On our right, the bucks were the last to emerge. I waited for the buck I had set my sights on, and he finally began to make his way out again. He made it to the feeder area. I steadied my hands, but every time I was about to take my shot, he would move to cover again. “He’s teasing you,” Steve whispered. This back-and-forth game continued for a while, until finally he walked into the clearing and stayed. He stood there in a perfect position for me. I took a deep breath, moved my finger to the trigger … and squeezed. Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine photographer Earl Nottingham had told me that when I pulled the trigger on my first hunt, I’d never hear it. The notion seemed odd to me; during my time at the shooting range, I’d definitely heard the loud blast. But at this moment, I knew just what he meant. I squeezed the trigger, and there was nothing but silence. I didn’t hear the hooves on the ground from the deer running away, didn’t hear Steve congratulate me and didn’t hear the shot. The buck walked for a moment and fell faster than I’d imagined. We waited for a while so we wouldn’t spook him if he was still alive. Watching the deer go from his feet to the ground was a remarkable moment, one that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I walked up to the deer after some time passed, and once I saw that he was dead, I wept. I paid my respects to the magnificent buck by taking part in a first hunt tradition, the smearing of a small amount of the animal’s blood on the face of the hunter. It felt ancient and primal. Steve cleaned the deer, explaining the intricate process to me along the way, and we went into town to drop it off for processing. I’ll be eating venison all year, and savoring it, just like when I was a girl at Dad’s table. And now I can’t wait until next season. PHOTO BY EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD After the deer is shot, a hunting license tag (opposite page) is filled out and attached to the buck (above). TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 37 O NOVEMBER 2015 38 LEFT PHOTO COURTESY OF NASA; RIGHT PHOTO © DIOMEDES66/DREAMSTIME.COM A HUNTER’S BETTER HALF PHOTO © LEFTY RAY CHAPA By David Sikes by John Goodspeed TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 39 Hunting Dogs 101 D PHOTOS LEFT TO RIGHT © LYNN M.STONE / NATUREPL.COM; CHASE FOUNTAIN / TPWD iscuss fine retrievers long enough with veteran Rockport dog trainer and bird hunter Jim Remley and he’ll return often to the phrase “deep understanding.” Remley struggles when he tries to explain it but insists it’s an almost spiritual (and definitely reciprocal) connection he’s shared with certain dogs during a passion spanning 50 years. Remley’s ardor flies in the face of an oft-held notion that hunters consider their four-legged field companions merely employees or work dogs. Over the years, Remley says, he’s witnessed very few examples of such “all-business” relationships. Perhaps they can be observed in a field trial setting, but only rarely in a hunting blind or bird pasture. In the Coastal Bend, arguably the center of coastal waterfowl hunting in Texas, the dense per capita Labrador retriever population may not be record-setting, but it is undeniably impressive. Many of those yellow, black and chocolate companions belong to hunters who can recall roughly (many times precisely) how many birds their Labs retrieved the previous season. They can tell you the pup’s total tally to date; it’s written in their journals. Remley has never placed much importance on such records, which he doesn’t track. After training and owning countless hunting dogs during his 72 years, he prefers to recall the ones he’s allowed fully into his heart. When pressed, Remley counts only four in this elite 40 O NOVEMBER 2015 class. A fifth candidate now begs for a spot on the list. Remley got a puppy in June. Rob Sawyer, author of A Hundred Years of Texas Waterfowl Hunting, has an explanation for why old men keep getting new puppies. “I interviewed dozens of men, and it was common for many to tear up when they spoke of two things — their fathers and their hunting dogs,” he says. “I thought about this bond and thought about my own bond and finally figured it out. Old men have buried their parents and raised their children. But there’s still some love in their hearts. It’s this love they bestow on their hunting dogs. And their dogs give it back.” Remley can talk about this give-and-take arrangement for hours with a smile, a twinkle in his eye and occasionally a tear about those special four, all Labradors. The first was Kareem, a black male that Remley paid $500 for in 1990, a time when Labs were going for $50. At 9 months old, the stubborn pup refused to retrieve or return with a training dummy or bumper. Remley’s disappointment led him to a trainer who introduced him to a technique called voice training for retrievers. It worked so well that Kareem and Remley remained inseparable for the next 12 years. In Remley’s eyes, Kareem’s apex achievement came early in their relationship during a Port Bay duck hunt. Remley and a hunting partner faced 25 mph winds punctuated by sharp gusts that churned the bay and most elusive level of understanding with his canine teammates. He believes Kareem’s intelligence, in large part, helped forge their connection. Training can be simply described as an effective way of showing a dog what is expected, Remley says. Learning and even anticipating the expectations of the hunter is the dog’s ultimate achievement. Most dogs grasp quickly what it takes to please their human to receive the affection and praise they crave. The training has to be mutual, of course, for successful teamwork. Hunter and dog must learn to work in seamless harmony. Remley says that certainly “good breeding makes good retrievers,” but he also believes that certain dogs possess uncanny insight that allows them to connect with a kind and nurturing owner. Of course, there’s one more thing that completes the package of a great retriever … heart. When Kareem was 6 years old, he slipped while leaping into Remley’s airboat at the end of a hunt. The propeller nearly severed his snout. The blow could have killed him, but a skilled veterinarian sewed him up. Kareem’s recovery was expected to take at least two to three weeks. Sometimes a man’s got to hunt, with or without his best dog. Not long after the accident, Remley was up early one morning, wearing camouflage and preparing for a duck hunt, a familiar routine. While Remley wasn’t looking, Kareem unlatched the backyard TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O PHOTOS LEFT TO RIGHT © LEFTY RAY CHAPA; © MARK RAYCROFT / MINDEN PICTURES created whitecaps cresting at three feet. A few ducks were flying that morning; several came within shotgun range. One of the men downed a bird, but it wasn’t a solid hit, and the crippled duck coasted for 300 to 400 yards. Kareem would not be denied. The young Lab was in pursuit before the duck hit the water. Nobody even saw the bird splash into the bay; it simply disappeared in the distance. Remley didn’t have a good feeling about his dog going after a bird like this. The minutes ticked slowly as his stomach muscles tightened. A half-hour passed, but there was little anyone could do but wait in such harsh conditions. A full 45 minutes went by, and there was no sign of Kareem. Suddenly, a wet black head with a mouth full of duck appeared on the crest of a wave outside the blind. It was a 48-minute retrieve of a pintail drake. Kareem dropped the bird at Remley’s feet and collapsed exhausted on the floor of the blind. “I figured he was done for the day,” Remley says. Not Kareem. Two minutes later another flock of ducks flew over the decoys, and birds fell. Kareem awoke and bounded from the blind. This time it took 35 minutes before the remarkable retriever returned with a duck. A longer nap was in store this time for Kareem, his hunting duties done for the day. Remley refuses to accept full credit for reaching that 41 PHOTOS LEFT TO RIGHT © LEFTY RAY CHAPA; © GARY KRAMER gate and jumped into his trailered airboat. When Remley walked to the driveway, his prized Lab with a swollen snout was standing on the deck of his boat, facing away. Remley called out. But Kareem didn’t respond. “He would not face me,” Remley says. “He just stared in the opposite direction and ignored me. I had to climb into the boat and physically carry him down.” According to Remley’s wife, Kareem stood in the backyard and cried for hours that day. Remley is convinced the dog’s whining was a lament over a lost opportunity to please him. The highest level of understanding between man and beast is rooted in the kind of mutual respect enjoyed by teammates and comrades in arms, Remley believes. To those who say hunters sacrifice a good retriever when they blur the line between working dog and pet, Remley replies with a resounding pshaw. The perfect dog, he insists, fits well in both worlds. It can sit quietly beside your favorite chair or in front of the fireplace while you read or watch TV. But the sight of camouflage or the scent of gun oil flips a switch in an instant. Eyes brighten, the tail becomes a blur, and every eager canine muscle tightens with anticipation. That loveable loafer at your feet becomes a focused athlete with a single purpose, the better half of your hunting team. Sawyer, a Houston geologist by profession and serious waterfowl hunter, savored such a relationship with 42 O NOVEMBER 2015 Nellie, his Chesapeake Bay retriever. Nellie never missed a hunt and traveled for five years with Sawyer while he crisscrossed Texas researching waterfowl history, a trek that resulted in his second book, Texas Market Hunting: Stories of Waterfowl, Game Laws and Outlaws. Nellie was a rescue dog with relentless drive. Sawyer enjoys retelling a story of their first hunt together. Like so many retriever brags begin, this one involved a wounded duck that sailed far across a pond. Sawyer’s eager pup followed the flight to the far bank. Sawyer and his hunting companions watched Nellie in the distance leaping alongside the trunk of a tree. Sawyer was the only one who did not laugh at Nellie’s unorthodox antics — which appeared akin to those of a squirrel dog — but he sported a wide grin when Nellie’s nose knocked that duck from the limbs of the tree and she returned to the blind victorious. Nellie took her job seriously and was true to Sawyer and her breed, which is known for singular loyalty and an indomitable will to retrieve. But Nellie had quirks. She was not averse to stealing another hunter’s bird if she couldn’t find the original. And it wasn’t necessary that it be the same duck species. “A bird in the mouth is worthy of praise” is how Sawyer imagined Nellie’s logic. Nellie also had a penchant for sparing energy during retrieves. She would race toward a downed duck and quickly capture it in her soft maw. The return trip, however, was not nearly as spectacular, swift or splashy. Rockport dog trainer and bird hunter Jim Remley (at right) has trained and owned many dogs over the years. His new puppy, Lilly, is the latest. By now you’re probably convinced that some hunting dogs are more than just employees, but sometimes they work well as employees, too. Longtime Portland bird hunter Harvey Evans recalls his first Chesapeake Bay retriever, Taffy, who was a star as a hunting dog, but was almost as good at selling crackers. During the early 1950s, Evans traveled the South, convincing grocery store managers and shoppers that the competition’s cracker was not fit for a dog. Evans and Taffy were a hit on the road. He’d set up his cracker-selling booth in grocery aisles with a box of Sunshine crackers on one side and a box of Nabisco Premium Saltines on the other. (Evans worked for Nabisco.) With Taffy by his side, he would open the Sunshine package and offer his sidekick a cracker. Taffy would turn away. Evans would insist the dog take the cracker, but Taffy was not interested. Then Evans would offer the dog a Nabisco saltine and Taffy would voraciously wolf down the cracker and eagerly await another. Evans would repeat his act for the entertainment-starved shoppers, who were then obliged to buy Nabisco. Of course, Evans was an accomplished dog trainer who had conditioned his pup to never accept any food from his right hand, which always held the competition’s cracker. “I could have put a sirloin steak in my right hand, and that dog would not so much as sniff it,” Evans says with a laugh. “But when a duck fell, they were all Nabisco.” TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O HOTOS LEFT TO RIGHT BY EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD; © DAVID SIKES Sawyer refers to this as an undesirable — but tolerable — trait. He recalls one hunt where Nellie’s style was contrasted against the more typical alternative. “Three pintails fell, and almost as if it was choreographed three retrievers hit the water at the same moment and reached their respective birds simultaneously,” Sawyer says, laughing. “Two of them returned in a rush of water, while Nellie took in the scenery on a slow walk to the blind.” On the road, the strong-willed and loveable Chesapeake was an asset to Sawyer’s research. Several sources who contributed stories and information for his duck books invited the author back for a second interview, but only if he brought Nellie along. On the other hand, the morning bell ringer at the Port Bay Hunting Club was not a fan. Apparently Nellie was offended by the club’s 100-year tradition of waking hunters with the incessant shaking of a hand-held bell in the hallway. She was not invited back. “Nellie and I shared a decade together, hunting ducks and geese from Louisiana to Port Isabel,” Sawyer says. “She approached every new adventure, from hunts in heat to ice, from airboats to pirogues and ATVs, with trust and calmness. During her last hunts she went afield completely deaf, or mostly deaf, and her legs were plagued by arthritis. But she would never consider leaving my side. Our hours in the field are memories now, but fond ones.” 43 East Texas landowner Robert McFarlane, with his beloved dog Spook, won the state's highest honor for private land conservation this year. 44 O NOVEMBER 2015 Insanity A beautiful Land steward award winner says ‘failing better’ is key to conservation success. By Tom Harvey Photos by Earl Nottingham TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 45 OK, “ what we have here is another example of the consequences of my applied ignorance.” McFarlane's conservation achievements on the Trinity have rippled up and down the river. Opposite page: The bottomland hardwoods on his land provide habitat for wildlife. 46 O NOVEMBER 2015 BigWoods on the Trinity With that typical self-deprecation, Robert McFarlane wryly describes his early effort to create a wetland on this East Texas land. It’s just one vignette from the 20-year trial-and-error process that this year earned him the Leopold Conservation Award, the state’s top honor for land stewardship. McFarlane is an iconoclastic character known for acerbic humor, apt to throw sharp verbal barbs that test newcomers and amuse friends. The Harvard-trained cardiologist will quote Faulkner and Freud one moment and cuss like a sailor the next. “I just think it’s better to go through life having a hoot, rather than having a wake,” he says. “I like to joke. I can bite my tongue, but it’s a lot of work. I’m not one to adhere to convention unless I think it’s useful.” Yet McFarlane’s love for the land and spirit of service to others shine in his personal story of healing and growth, one that is interwoven with the story of the woods and waters he helped heal on his ranch along the Trinity River. Innovative experimentation — trying and failing and learning from failure — has been the hallmark of his journey. “Moist soil management duck marshes are very complex, very labor intensive, and to try to manage them commercially is really a foolish thing unless you’re a little bit crazy,” McFarlane says. “I guess this was a form of insanity, but I think it was a beautiful insanity, and I’m happy to have been crazy. The only advice I have for somebody insane enough to do what I’m doing is do your best, and in the words of Samuel Beckett, ‘Keep trying, and next time fail better.’” Despite these trials, McFarlane ultimately triumphed on his own land, and his influence has reverberated along the Trinity River. It is the most populated river basin in Texas, where nearly 8 million people live. It begins and ends in big cities and flows for more than 500 miles through highly fragmented rural lands. It dissects five of the state's 10 ecoregions before emptying into Galveston Bay. Its nearly 2,000 miles of tributaries encompass 18,000 square miles across 38 counties. The state’s two most populated urban centers, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, depend on the Trinity River to meet their municipal needs. It exemplifies the Texas struggle to provide enough clean water to satisfy many different demands. “The Trinity River is our Mississippi [River],” McFarlane says. “You’ve got the state’s two biggest cities on each end, and I think there’s a lot of value to wild recreational areas proximate to urban people who would otherwise be living on concrete. Our state has begun to appreciate water resources and clean water. Well, all of this natural hardwood landscape cleans the water.” To help bring back the troubled Trinity, McFarlane in 2000 founded the Middle Trinity River Conservation Cooperative, now Trinity Waters. While volunteering as president for the first five years, he convinced then- Gov. Rick Perry to create the Trinity River Conservation Initiative, making $500,000 available for conservation within the basin. Today, Trinity Waters has secured grant funding for many large-scale conservation efforts. Among these is the Water as a Crop initiative with the Sand County Foundation, the nonprofit that also bestows the $10,000 Leopold Conservation Award that McFarlane received this spring as part of the Lone Star Land Steward Awards, a program of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. But the story behind these achievements starts much longer ago. “Freud said that what you do as an adult is really reflective of your childhood dreams,” McFarlane says. “And when I was a kid I always loved black land and black dogs.” As a boy, McFarlane sat around the table hearing his mother’s brothers tell “what I now know are hunting lies.” He said this was “just a mythical thing for me,” and he hunted East Texas river bottoms throughout his youth. Then, in 1970, he went off to Boston, where he lived for 15 years “learning how to play heart doctor.” He came back to Palestine, where he’s been a practicing cardiologist for 30 years. Through the mid-’80s and early ’90s, McFarlane worked hard hours under life-and-death pressure treating heart patients. His occasional respite was access to almost 100,000 acres of river bottom. But for various reasons the TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 47 The Lone Star Land Steward Awards recognize private landowners for excellence in habitat management and wildlife conservation, with goals to educate landowners and the public and encourage habitat conservation. The Leopold Conservation Award is given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold by the Sand County Foundation (sandcounty.net). In Texas, the Leopold award is sponsored by the Lee and Ramona Bass Foundation, DuPont Pioneer, the Mosaic Company and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Anyone may nominate a landowner for recognition in the Lone Star Land Steward Awards, with nominations accepted June 1–Nov. 30. See the awards Web page (tpwd. texas.gov/landsteward) for more information. This page: The lodge at The BigWoods on the Trinity sits in a pastoral landscape. Opposite page: McFarlane has spent years restoring his land, including building more than 40 marshes; water-loving plants such as the spider lily (below) are right at home in the wetlands. 48 O NOVEMBER 2015 woods were sold, the timber was cut, and he had no place to go. The 7,500-acre conservation showpiece he calls The BigWoods on the Trinity started as a recreational lark. He wanted some land in the river bottom, so he bought his first 1,500 acres. During this period of heavy professional stress, McFarlane’s life began to take a turn. “About the time I began to assemble The BigWoods, I realized I had a problem,” he recalls. “I was horrified when an old widow spoke to me at the grocery store, thanking me for having taken such good care of her husband many years before — I hardly remembered who she or he was. I stammered my way out of it semi-graciously but was inwardly terribly embarrassed. After this, I had the charts of my deceased patients put in a small room in my office where I would sit alone each month, remembering, reflecting, respecting — not forgetting.” This theme of remembrance, of a return to better times, is central to his story. “The great Czech novelist Milan Kundera, who spent most of his adult life in Prague behind the Iron Curtain, said the struggle of freedom against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting,” McFarlane said the night he received his award. “One might also say this is the struggle of humanity, of civilization. Memory is our most precious asset, being the repository of our humanity.” And so, McFarlane’s two decades of toil have been about returning the land and river to their former glory, restoring what was lost. Before his ownership, the property was highly fragmented, overgrazed, neglected and abused. He built more than 40 marshes and dozens of levees and water control structures, greatly improving habitat for waterfowl and in the process enhancing the land’s ability to hold and filter cleaner water. He planted trees and restored forests. Hunters from as far away as Illinois and Pennsylvania now come after waterfowl, deer and feral hogs. And with the improved habitat the property now has striking bird diversity, and is one of the state’s best places for birders to view colorful neotropical migrants, waterfowl and wading birds. These and many other benefits stem from a thoughtful focus on ecological restoration. “You can’t go back in time; you can never re-create what was,” McFarlane acknowledges. “But you can do the best you can to marshal the resources you have to be consistent with the ecology, and the land will take care of itself. It won’t be the same, but it will be good in its own right.” As the landscape slowly changed and improved, McFarlane changed with it. “The BigWoods eventually taught me the virtue of slowness,” he says. “It literally takes the hurry out of you, replacing it with a vigilant peace of mind.” Yet, he says, it would be a mistake to confuse this lovely stillness with something that is static. “As Beethoven said about composing, ‘You must begin with a melody and a rhythm, but it is the addition of the sudden unexpected — changes in tempo, in register, or a new melody — the beautiful surprises that make the music compelling.’ Rounding a corner to see the nuzzling of a fawn by its mother, the regal courtship antics of soaring anhinga arcing in the sky, the ridiculous Star Wars R2D2 call of a white-eyed vireo — as with the landscape, it is the engrafting of beautiful surprises on the already magnificent that make it awe-inspiring.” McFarlane is well aware of the challenges facing Texas — the pressures of its growing human population, the fragmentation of land ownership into ever-smaller parcels and the resulting loss of wildlife habitat. Still, he is hopeful. “People can grow,” he says. “I’m pretty much an optimist. There was no bigger heathen than myself. If I can stay out of jail now, or have no reason to be in jail, I think anybody can do it.” Looking to the future, he has opened his ranch gates to youth groups, among others. Last July, The BigWoods hosted the inaugural Waterfowl Brigades camp, a youth leadership camp with a waterfowl focus. For six days, from 6 a.m. to around midnight, 25 high school kids were immersed in all aspects of conservation, waterfowl biology and management, and leadership skills. “My vision for The BigWoods is this,” he says. “One hundred years from now, another tow-headed boy, his freckle-faced girlfriend and their black dog sit under a cypress tree planted just this past winter, on the first crisp day of that autumn, their eyes scanning the northern horizon with anticipation, listening intently for that recurrent murmur in the cycles of deep time, the vanguard of another great migration, whose wild ducks instinctively come back again to their winter home, refilling the empty marshes, a place where a young boy’s most fantastic childhood dream continues to come true.” T EXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 49 Legend, Lore & Legacy Avian Mailmen by Erin Kedzie Carrier pigeons still bring messages on the wing. TOP PHOTO BY JONATHAN VAIL / TPWD; BOTTOM PHOTO BY CHASE FOUNTAIN / TPWD WERE I TO RECEIVE a message by carrier pigeon, I imagine it would find me on the balcony. Twilight would settle, and the bird would be a speck against the clouds until — plunk! — he would alight in a puff of feathers and extend his note-carrying leg to me. Such are my fancies. It’s no surprise that we have such romantic associations with the carrier pigeon, but their messages have carried dread as well. Consider Peter Winn’s blackmail notes in Jack London’s The Night-Born or the news of battle from history’s greatest warriors, like Julius Caesar, Charlemagne and Genghis Khan. Texas has its own unique history of fanciers and their carrier pigeons, and the tradition unfurls itself into the present day. First, some basics. Carrier pigeons are a variety of the species that enjoys your bread crust offerings on city streets. Rock pigeons (Columba livia) are the talkative residents of cities across North America. Carrier pigeons have the extra tagline domestica, and they are specifically bred to be airborne mail carriers. These birds are sometimes referred to as “homing” pigeons because of a special instinct: a knack for returning again and again to their keeper and home. Michael Bencal, left, says his PigeonGram message service is a throwback to the past. His homing pigeons carry messages through the air just as their predecessors did, most notably during times of war. 50 O NOVEMBER 2015 HOTO BY CHASE FOUNTAIN / TPWD A carrier pigeon keeper is known as a fancier. One meaning of the term refers to someone who breeds to a standard of excellence. Another refers to a person who “fancies” his or her hobby, skill or pet object. Put it all together and a pigeon fancier is a sportsman/devotee hybrid who raises the bird for sport — or to maintain the tradition of sending messages via domestica. Here in Texas, homing pigeons are noted for carrying a specific kind of message — the military variety. Carrier pigeons are sometimes linked with the symbolic dove of peace, but they also made their way into the wreckage of World War I. They found a home amid the airplane hangars and marching men of Call Field (in Wichita County, up near the Oklahoma border), one of 32 U.S. Army Air Corps training camps set up in 1918. The property was equipped with a row of lofts to house the special bird. Wartime pigeons proved invaluable by delivering military messages with a 95 percent success rate, largely due to their ability to sense magnetic fields and ultralow sound frequencies to find their way back home. That same year, the birds excelled in certain military experiments at Fort Sam Houston. They could be released from both planes and balloons and reach their destinations unimpeded. This meant that calls for assistance could be made in a jiffy; pilots could dispatch a message close to its destination and continue onward in flight. After these discoveries, pigeons were sent out from the fort to all aviation fields across Texas. As a faithful steward of wartime updates, the San Antonio Express-News informed the public of the state’s use of carrier pigeons and joined in on the craze a couple of decades later. During the World War II era, in 1938, the newspaper acquired a flock of pigeons and used them to carry sports photos from photojournalists to their publishers. Unlike the WWI military correspondence, these deliveries were a lighthearted contrast to the ongoing news of World War II. There’s also at least one report from the ’30s of our robust South Texas oilmen incorporating domestica in their drilling operations. If they were a hundred miles from the nearest city and several miles from the nearest telephone, it could be a trial to deliver those daily drilling reports. Rather than make the trip personally, they utilized their pigeon-raising hobby. In the span of a couple of hours, a pigeon could deliver the report and return again, saving the busy oilman valuable time in the field. Skip ahead to the fanciers of today. Meet Michael Bencal, keeper of the PigeonGram lofts in Hallettsville. PigeonGram is a bona fide pigeon mail delivery service, complete with flat rate and priority mail options. A pigeon will carry your message over yawning stretches of rural Texas before the post office takes over to deliver it to the final destination. “You’ve got both old and new technologies paired together,” Bencal says. “It’s a combination of two opposing ideas.” Bencal has looked after his own lofts since 1967, when he and his father began to house their own flock. For him, it’s been 48 years of hard work and reward, but PigeonGram was a natural outgrowth. “They seem to understand the map of the earth and plot their courses,” he says. “I thought it was just a natural extension of having pigeons. Why not bring pigeon mail to current times?” The PigeonGram loft looks like one elongated green house. The eaves hang low, and there are numerous spaces for the birds to fly in and roost. Though lofts can vary aesthetically and in size, their primary function is the same — to be “home” on the pigeons’ homing radar, where they can nest, feed and recover from their trips. There are breeding standards for those who pursue the hobby. Fanciers register their pigeons in a variety of national pigeon organizations and then in smaller clubs throughout the country. Each bird is given a numbered band so it can be traced back to its keepers if lost. Bands include letters and numbers that indicate any national registration, the year of registration and any smaller club participation, as well as additional digits unique to the pigeon and its club. National organizations, like the American Racing Pigeon Union and the National Pigeon Association, act as town squares through which members can build community, share their interests and find other fanciers. Not all members even own lofts — but they have a united avian interest. With about eight clubs in cities from Amarillo to Elmendorf, many Texas fanciers are involved. They join the ranks of fanciers Texas has known since the 1930s and earlier. The joining ligament? A desire to diminish distance. The Army boys of Call Field stayed on task with the Army boys of Fort Sam Houston, and 1930s reporters lent a sense of relief and togetherness to sports fans. People spread across a vast state had a way to reach each other in a personal way. This means that Bencal is similar to the oilmen of 80 years ago. Both are equipped with a sense of nostalgia and forward thinking that can unite people. Past meets present, and a little bird helps seal the gap. “It’s not instantaneous like the Internet or a phone call,” Bencal says. “It’s an actual correspondence from somebody who took the time to send it to you, and a lot of people value that.” TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 51 Continued from Page 28 the unassuming structure, pickups fill the gravel parking lot, and inside, neon signs and longhorns line the walls. The steaks offered range from a 7-ounce “small dinner steak” to a 20-ounce ribeye. I ordered the 10-ounce filet mignon, which arrived quickly, tender and flavorful, seasoned with garlic. Current owner Kerry Goetz says the steakhouse ended up here because in the 1950s, “Concho County was the only place you could sit down and eat and have a beer at the same time.” Back at Dry Hollow, I sat for a while beneath a sky dusted with stars and thought how the rock artists likely pondered a night sky much like this one. In addition to dark skies, this spot offers a kind of peace and quiet increasingly rare in much of Texas these days. I slept like a rock, no pun intended. Sunday morning, I met guide Tony Plutino for a kayak outing. I’ve paddled the San Saba River above Menard several times and wanted to try the 3 52 O NOVEMBER 2015 PHOTO BY EARL NOTTINGHAM / TPWD DAYS IN PAINT ROCK Owner Jason Jacoby welcomes locals and hungry travelers to Jacoby’s Cafe in Melvin. The popular cafe sits next to the family’s busy feed-and-seed operation in a pictur- esque rural setting. Llano River, which offers a number of possible routes. We paddled a five-mile stretch south of Mason, taking out at Dos Rios Resort. Several times, we pulled our kayaks to the shore to gawk at world-class stromatolites, fossilized in layers of limestone that were a seabed some 500 million years ago. Stromatolites are slightly raised concentric circles resembling a flattened wedding cake. They mark where layers and layers of blue-green algae once grew in that sea. These fossils appear primarily in exposed Precambrian rock in scattered spots around the country, including only this part of Texas. We spotted great blue herons, ospreys and kingfishers, just some of the birds that live along the river. Wild onion, agarita and Texas persimmon grow along the banks, and those who paddle here in spring can stop to gorge on the black, juicy persimmons. Plutino offers guided excursions to the Paint Rock pictograph site and other area attractions; he had recommended my stop in Eola. He also offers a daylong outing with paddling or exploring in the morning followed by an afternoon of wine tasting. Now that’s something you can’t do in just any town. How to Tell Time Like a Man Our digital-analog hybrid has two sides... tough and tougher. Get it now for an unbelievable $59! Y our watch shouldn’t cost more than your car. 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An Outstanding Value with Satisfaction Guaranteed www.bradfordexchange.com/texaspride ©2015 The Bradford Exchange 01-16247-001-BIT P U B L I S H E R ’ S S TAT E M E N T PRODUCTS & SERVICES Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (All Periodicals Publications Except Requester Publications) 1. Publication Title Texas Parks & Wildlife 4. Issue Frequency 2. Publication Number 0 0 4 0 _ 458 3. Filing Date 4 5 8 6 5. Number of Issues Published Annually Monthly with combined issues in Jan/Feb and Aug/Sep 10 9/14/15 6. Annual Subscription Price $18.00 Contact Person 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication (Not printer) (Street, city, county, state, and ZIP+4 ® ) 4200 Smith School Rd., Austin, TX 78744 Peter Kelly Telephone (Include area code) 650-583-4474 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher (Not printer) 4200 Smith School Rd., Austin, TX 78744 9. 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Free or (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies included on PS Form 3541 Nominal Rate Distribution (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541 (By Mail and Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS Outside (3) (e.g., First-Class Mail) the Mail) (4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means) e. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (Sum of 15d (1), (2), (3) and (4)) f. Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and 15e) g. Copies not Distributed (See Instructions to Publishers #4 (page #3)) h. Total (Sum of 15f and g) i. Percent Paid (15c divided by 15f times 100) 298 25418 157536 156783 www.hillcountryadventures.com 830-966-2320 • www.friolodging.com 247 23475 Bird, Hike, Mountain Bike Trails, Storytelling & Nature Tours 5818 5537 163354 162320 85 84 * If you are claiming electronic copies, go to line 16 on page 3. If you are not claiming electronic copies, skip to line 17 on page 3. FREDERICKSBURG H Palo Alto Creek Farm. Landmark historic German-Texas farmstead on the creek. Ancient oaks, abundant wildlife, Hill Country tranquility. Beautifully renovated log cabin, barn, farmhouse, all with private spa therapy rooms. www.paloaltocreekfarm.com PS Form 3526, July 2014 (Page 2 of 4) (800) 997-0089 H Settler’s Crossing Bed and Breakfast. Private historic log cabins and cottages spread over 35 park-like acres, just minutes from town. www.settlerscrossing.com (800) 874-1020 ­ N E W B R A U N F E L S H Historic Kuebler Waldrip Haus Bed and Breakfast. Country elegance on 43 acres 2-6 minutes to New Braunfels, Gruene, music, shopping, fishing, golf, tennis. Perfect for vaca- tions, weddings, reunions. 10 rooms, Jacuzzis, delicious hot breakfast. www.kueblerwaldrip.com (830) 625-8300 COMFORT H Meyer B&B. On Cypress Creek, Hill Country, mid-1800s stage stop, Texas landmark. 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TOLL-FREE 877-201-6111 DRlogsplitters.com TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE O 57 IMAGE SPECS: Canon EOS 5D Mark III with 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. Shot at 200mm, f/3.2 at 1/160th of a second. ISO 320. Texas Parks & Wildlife photographer Earl Nottingham was taking pictures at the Johnson Branch Unit of Ray Roberts Lake State Park in North Texas when he came across unicyclist Jorge Vieira riding the wooded trails. “At first I didn’t see anybody there, but then out of nowhere comes a guy on a unicycle,” Earl says. Jorge and his wife live in nearby Valley View and ride at Ray Roberts regularly — she rides a mountain bike, and he rides the unicycle. 58 O NOVEMBER 2015 SAVE TODAY. S’MORES TOMORROW. See how much you could save on RV insurance. for your RV geico.com | 1-877-434-2678 | local office Some discounts, coverages, payment plans and features are not available in all states or all GEICO companies. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, D.C. 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. The GEICO Gecko © 1999-2015. © 2015 GEICO – NELSON HENDERSON CREATE A LEGACY WITH DEEP ROOTS FOR GENERATIONS TO COME. PLEASE REMEMBER TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION IN YOUR ESTATE PLAN. For more information, please contact: Anne Brown, Executive Director Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation 2914 Swiss Avenue, Dallas, TX 75204 214-720-1478 | abrown@tpwf.org