- NARRATOR: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota--Let's Go Places.

Coming up on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - Oh, I can see the yellow crown.

- What's more fun than getting outside, being with a bunch of friends, and doing something that brings everyone together?

- Tim is the key to the ICAN program, the ICAN initiative.

And he's in!

- It was part of the railroad put in in 1913.

Here at Old Tunnel we have about three million bats.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks & Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

- NARRATOR: It's just before sunrise at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park, and some creatures are stirring.

[door slam] - Everybody ready?

- NARRATOR: A group has gathered for one purpose... - Oh I have the checklist.

- NARRATOR: ...to see and hear as many kinds of birds as they can in a day.

- I think the goal today is 100.

- NARRATOR: They are competing in the Great Texas Birding Classic.

Team name?

- The Queenfishers.

- These are the Queenfishers.

I'm the king of the Queenfishers!

[laughs] - NARRATOR: Before they enter the park... - JAVIER: Did you hear it?

- NARRATOR: ...they have already made some progress.

- JAVIER: Got it.

Screech owl.

Woooo!

We're not going to move from the parking lot.

- MONICA: We're going to stay here the whole day.

[laughs] [bus engine running] - Do you have lunch?

Binoculars?

Field guide?

Need to use the restroom before we go?

- NARRATOR: A few hours to the north, another team gathers.

- MARTHA: Team Osprey, let's go, Team Osprey.

- NARRATOR: It's the Awesome Ospreys, with two birding mentors, and their science teacher.

- Ready?

Let's go!

- NARRATOR: This team of fifth-graders is also embarking on the Birding Classic.

- Okay, there was a bird we saw a lot on Saturday.

Do you remember what bird that is?

- It's something, Pha-ra-lope.

- You are correct, it is a Phalarope.

Good job, Brian.

- NARRATOR: Martha McLeod uses the competition to teach students about biology, and also, teamwork.

- MARTHA: Did you see it?

- Uh uh.

- MARTHA: Alright, the whole team's got to see it.

It's a big skill we work on with these kids.

We teach them to collaborate together, valuing each other's opinions, listening to what someone else has to say.

You guys keep your eyes to the sky.

This is the culmination of a year's worth of study with these kids.

Call it out loud when you see a bird.

- NARRATOR: Like the Queenfishers... - GIRL: There's a great blue heron right here.

- NARRATOR: ...the Awesome Ospreys hope to see 100 bird species by noon.

- MARTHA: Yea, great blue is on the list.

- NARRATOR: And they too are off to a good start.

- MARTHA: Eighty-eight more to go.

[laughs] Kids need a tangible target to shoot for, so setting 100, that's a good number for them to try and work toward for a species count.

- NARRATOR: Back in the Rio Grande Valley, the counting continues.

- MONICA: There's the woodpecker again.

The chip chip chip?

- JAVIER: That's a uh black crested titmouse.

And that's a cardinal.

- It's getting good.

[laughs] - JAVIER: Right back in these trees.

Green jay.

- MONICA: Nice!

I got the green jay, I got the titmouse.

- JAVIER: Mourning dove.

- MONICA: Oh, that's another dove.

Chachalaca.

There he is, there he is.

- MARISA: Yeah, that's a beautiful bird.

- JAVIER: It's a green heron.

- It's pretty incredible birding down here, which is why this competition is so much fun.

More than half of all the birds that have been seen in the U.S. have been seen in our four county area.

What's that?

One of the Great Texas Birding Classic teams had almost 200 in one day.

[mosquito buzzing] - JAVIER: Great Texas Mosquito Classic.

- MONICA: Get away mosquito!

- What's more fun than getting outside, being with a bunch of friends and doing something that really just brings everyone together?

[music] [laughter] [car door] - NARRATOR: While the Great Texas Birding Classic was once held only along the Coast, it is now statewide.

Teams choose when to compete, from mid-April to mid-May, and how.

Serious birders may opt for a 24-hour "Big Day" in their region... [car passing] or even a full-week statewide, visiting as many sites as possible.... [music] - MONICA: Ton of phalaropes.

- NARRATOR: The sunrise to noon tournament may be more ideal for youth teams or those more focused on just having fun.

But perhaps the most relaxing way to participate in the Birding Classic is known as a Big Sit.

- CULLEN: We have some shorebirds right over there.

See where that blind is?

- SHELLY PLANTE: The Big Sit is a really great event in the Birding Classic.

It is literally birding from a 17-foot diameter circle for a full 24-hour day, or as much of a day as your team wants to do.

The Big Sit is something that literally anyone could do.

We call it the tailgate party for birders.

- I'm an amateur birder.

- SHELLY: A lot of these people are newbies, and then we have one or two really good birders on the team that are helping explain what everything is.

- Most of them are cliff swallows.

- SHELLY: So it's this wonderful learning experience.

- JULIA: Semi-palmated sandpiper.

I've got to see that one.

- We are the Tweeting Chats.

- The Chatting Tweets-uh the Tweeting Chats.

- SHELLY: They are communications folks, and they tweet, they use social media.

A Chat is a type of bird.

- LOUIE: A yellow-breasted chat.

I'm sure it tweets.

[laughs] - SHELLY: It's just a very fitting name for this team.

- ROBERT: This group is great and they're having a good time.

- LOUIE: We're an embarrassment to birders everywhere.

[laughs] - NARRATOR: Back on the Coast, The Awesome Ospreys hit the birding hotspots of Port Aransas.

- MARTHA: We are at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center.

Look here -- fix your jacket.

There you go.

Okay.

I'm hoping these kids can get to 100.

They're the last team to compete.

- Where'd it go?

- Being at the tail end of migration, it's going to be tough.

- It just flew over there.

- MARTHA: Right now they're neck and neck with my fourth grade team.

- Yeah, the eastern kingbird up there.

- There's an oriole!

- Roseate spoonbill, guys.

- Oh what is that?

- White ibis.

- The redwing blackbird.

- MARTHA: We're going to go to several places to day, so we've still got a lot of time ahead of us.

- MONICA: Oh there it is.

- NARRATOR: By mid-morning, the Queenfishers, and their King, are looking for kingfishers.

- As we were eating our breakfast, a green kingfisher perched about 20 feet away from us and then dashed across the water to the other side of the ponds.

They're on the T-shirt.

We're in the area to get them, so hopefully we'll get all three today.

- NARRATOR: The team has migrated to the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands, another World Birding Center site.

- BECKY: We've seen a lot.

Hopefully we'll see more.

- MARISA: In our region here in South Texas, the last 10 years there's been so much development of these nature centers for the World Birding Centers, so it's getting easier and easier just to find a place in your backyard neighborhood to go out and bird and see what's out there.

- NARRATOR: And some true neighborhood birding is also on the agenda.

- One of the things that I like is our trees are kind of short, so you can drive through and look through the neighborhoods, and there are some great neighborhoods with old growth trees and you can see some really great birds in there.

- MONICA: Oh, I can see the yellow crown!

- MARISA: So you can do drive birding as we were doing today, and walking around-very easy to do.

[music] - JAVIER: Okay, let's go!

We are not to 100 yet.

[laughs] I think we're in the 70s right now.

Okay, if not a blue jay, something else we haven't gotten.

- MONICA: I hope we don't see it like at 12:01.

Noooo!

[music] - MARTHA: Does everyone see a sandwich tern?

- Yes -- No.

- JACOB: Right there.

- NARRATOR: From their mobile bird blind, the Awesome Ospreys continue their count, taking in habitat from beach to bay and woodland to wetland.

- BRIAN: No, that's the redstart, it's got like the yellow on its wings.

- NARRATOR: As noon, and the end of their competition approaches, the heat and early start begin to take their toll.

[sighs] - After awhile you kind of start getting tired.

- NARRATOR: Eventually even the birds need some rest.

[Chachalacas calling] - JAVIER: It's their noon freakout.

It's 12, guys.

That's it!

- Woooo!

- Bird like crazy all morning, and then go eat lunch.

It's nice!

[laughs] - MARISA: Least bittern, great blue heron.

- Yes.

- MARISA: Great egret?

- NARRATOR: In the final tally, the Queenfishers did not reach 100 species, but they did finish second in the all-ages, sunrise to noon competition.

- Eighty-six species.

We didn't get to 100, but 86 is still pretty good for a half a day.

- See anything cool, Brian?

- NARRATOR: The Awesome Ospreys placed third in their region and age-group, seeing 105 species of birds.

And the Tweeting Chats saw 54... - CULLEN: What's coming in here?

- NARRATOR: ...ranking them first among their region's Big Sits.

But the numbers may really be for the birds.

In its first year as a statewide contest, the Great Texas Birding Classic raised $17,000 for habitat conservation and nature tourism projects.

- JAVIER: It's for a good cause, and we had fun.

- MONICA: I really enjoy it.

I enjoy bird-watching.

I enjoy keeping track of the birds that we see.

And it's definitely more fun, for us, when we do it together.

- JAVIER: What was that?

- It's a, uh, tanager.

- Yes it is.

- MARTHA: It's truly amazing in a year's time how much they've learned.

It's not just go look at birds, and 'Oh they're cute, they're pretty and let's count them.'

They learn that they've got a responsibility as stewards of the environment.

They inspire me daily.

They're interested, they're curious.

They just need that adult to take them out into the outdoors.

You guys ready?

Those were good birds.

Keep looking!

[crickets and frogs chirp] [upbeat music] - NARRATOR: South Padre Island is known to attract vacationers looking for a relaxing getaway... but two friends are bringing a new meaning to this resort town.

♪ ♪ [waves lapping] - You know, my day's faced with a new obstacle most every day.

I wake up, you gotta pack, you gotta get ready, you gotta get the stuff that you need for the bathroom to change just in case.

I can go on and on and on about my obstacles.

I don't even think about that.

I just move on.

I've got an obstacle.

I'm gonna climb stairs, I just climb the stairs.

Wanna go swimmin', I just go swimmin'.

Am I efficient?

[chuckles] Absolutely not, but I can do it.

[upbeat music] - Tim just has the perfect perspective on life.

I thought, okay, he's the guy that I want to be a captain.

- TIM: It's nice and hot today.

There's no breeze.

- SHANE: He's far more important on this boat when we go out than I am.

Tim captains the boat and he runs the boat.

- TIM: Here we go boys, we're on the road.

This gentleman walks up to me, and we talked a little bit.

He's like, "Man, that's cool.

I can't believe we live here together and haven't met each other," and he walks away.

And next thing I know here he comes running back at me and he hands me his card.

He goes, "I need you."

- SHANE: I had this vision all wrapped up in my head and couldn't really pull everything together, and I met Tim and he was just so vibrant.

Tim is the key to the ICAN program, the "ICAN" initiative.

- TIM: Hang on for a ride.

The ICAN is a 25-foot tritoon equipped for handicapped individuals.

Scooters, wheelchairs, anything you have, hospital beds.

We can take fishing, them and their family, and that's what it's all about.

- BOATER: See what the jetties look like.

- SHANE: I found an old tritoon, all used equipment, and we built it from the ground up, and I had two gentlemen who were retired engineers that live here on the island with us.

They love to build stuff and they're way smarter than I am.

I just had the vision.

What's really interesting about our boat is our boat has a lift on it.

- BOATER: And he's goin' down.

- SHANE: The lift is to take people and put them from the deck of the boat down in the water.

Paraplegics, they want to be as independent as possible.

They're all the time, you know, asking folks to help them, and they don't want you to help them.

They wanna be independent.

- NARRATOR: Just a few months after completing the ICAN Boat, South Padre Island was proclaimed as the special needs sport fishing capital of Texas.

- SHANE: Very exciting to be a part of.

It's very humbling to start something that is so powerful and impactful.

- What fishing's future does, what they could do for the community is amazing.

I could not ask for a better stitch for me.

Here I am livin' the dream.

[splash] - BOATER: And he's in!

- TIM: And, you know, five years ago, I was in a nursing home.

[swimmer laughing] Who woulda thought?

So never give up, you know.

You never know what's around the corner.

Celebrating a century of Texas State Parks.

[bats fluttering] - NYTA BROWN: They circle around here a few times to get elevation to get above the trees-- basically a tornado of flying bats.

[bats fluttering] It's spectacular.

I've been watching it for 11 years and I still don't get tired of it.

It's just amazing, for people who have never seen it before, it's fun to watch their faces and see how amazed they are.

I can't compare it to anything else.

It's just pretty cool.

[dramatic music] I'm Nyta Brown and I'm the park superintendent here at Old Tunnel State Park.

[dramatic music] [steam hissing] [bell ringing] It was part of a railroad that was put in in 1913.

People in Fredericksburg were trying to get to San Antonio quicker and they had a railroad that from San Antonio over to Kerrville.

And that rail line wouldn't lay tracks over this hill because they said it was too big for them to pull freight cars and passenger cars and so people in Fredericksburg decided to start their own railroad.

And they decided to tunnel through the hill.

They started in March of 1913, and they were done by July of 1913, and they dug it out by hand.

And the first train ran through August 1913 and it was in operation until 1941, and then it was bankrupt, so they decommissioned it.

In the 50s, a rancher that lived down the road saw smoke coming from this direction and he thought something had caught fire over here, came to investigate, and it was the bats.

So they've been here since the early 50s, for sure.

Here at Old Tunnel, we have the Mexican freetails, which our population is at its peak right now of about three million bats.

And we also have about 3,000 cave myotis bats.

They can maneuver through trees and bushes quite easily.

You can see the wingspan is quite a bit longer on the freetails.

Freetails are migratory bats, so they migrate here for the summer and they stay through the fall until about the end of October, and then they'll head back down to Mexico, where they can still find food through the winter.

Over 21,000 people come just during bat season to see the bats.

And that's not counting all the people that come during the day just to hike the trail and maybe look at the tunnel, because there's a lot of people interested in the history too.

- Good show.

It's a beautiful night for bats.

- NYTA: We have two viewing areas, our upper viewing area is open every night of the week, and it's always free, and it's usually a good view from up there when the bats are coming out earlier.

This lower viewing area is only open Thursday through Sunday nights, for a five dollar per-person fee.

It's a good view from down here most of the season.

Most of the bats here in the United States are eating insects, so, very beneficial to agriculture.

There are bats that eat mosquitoes, so that's a good bat to have around.

- INTERPRETER: These bats are active all year.

- NYTA: People are more educated now than they have been in the past.

I don't find as many people that are afraid of bats as I used to, so I think that perception is changing a bit.

More people are understanding how important bats are to the environment, so they want to help them rather than be afraid of them.

[crickets chirp] [soothing music] ♪ ♪ [bison grunts] [prairie dogs call] - We are in the middle of our prairie dog town right now.

It's part of our big process of restoring the park back to what it would have looked like prior to European settlement.

[prairie dogs barking] Historically, prairie dogs were just totally abundant in Texas and the entire southwest, but they have been reduced to about two percent of their original habitat.

So we are giving them a sanctuary.

We are restoring them into the park; giving them a sanctuary where they can be prairie dogs.

[prairie dogs barking] - Are all these burrows that they make?

Are they all interconnected?

- You know many people think that all of the prairie dog burrows are all connected to each other within the town, but they are actually just connected within the coteries, and coteries are the family of prairie dogs.

They are usually made up of one male and maybe four or five females.

[prairie dog calls] - You see the guy just looking over the edge, right over here.

He hasn't quite figured us out yet!

[laughs] - DONALD: You can see the prairie dogs, you can see them actively participating in the eco-system.

You know, the bison wander through here.

And then the people can walk right around here and watch this all happening at the same time.

[playful music] - Look, there's two babies!

- Oh look, see the two babies coming out of the hole.

- DONALD: Now the pups are born three months ago or so.

We've got a few of them already popping up.

Now we got a bunch of little babies running around, and it's really neat to see!

- Look at that one!

- DONALD: Our goal here at the park is to restore it to what it would have looked like 300 years ago, thereby giving the people that come, the visitors, the opportunity to see wildlife in a natural setting.

[uplifting music] We are restoring an indigenous wildlife to its native habitat.

This is its historic home.

[gentle guitar music] - A lot of people, when they hear interpreter, they think languages, and so they think of an interpreter as someone that connects two people of two different languages.

My name is Ranger John.

I'm the park interpreter here.

So, what I do out here is I connect our guests to the natural, the cultural and the recreational resources here at the park.

They're soft on the side if you feel the side.

This park was designed to be a recreational park, specifically a water recreational park.

[water splashing] The fishing is really popular out here.

But of course, we have lots of camping sites and about 20 miles worth of trails out here.

Anyone notice anything on the coloring of this gator?

Stripes.

Anyone guess why they have stripes?

Yes.

Camouflage.

You know, I look at it and I'm taking people up the staircase of stewardship through, like, my social media work, I'm introducing people to the park.

Hello everybody, Ranger John from Huntsville State Park with our Live With the Ranger broadcast updates and news about the parks.

Then once people come out, if I can meet those people with programs and outreach here in the park, then we're introducing them to some of the natural resources we have out here.

We have a special event coming up next week, 8 a.m. We're going to be doing Dogs On the Dogwood so join myself and my not-so-little anymore Bark Ranger Queso.

You know, I just decided I personally wanted a dog, but I wanted to make sure that he would become an advocate for how to recreate in the park responsibly with your pet.

And so Bark Ranger Queso, he's got his own Instagram page right now and he comes out here for some of my programs.

We love having our pets out here, but we have to make sure that they recreate responsibly.

- So, today, in case you did not know, it is national corn on the cob day.

So, John and I have put together some interesting recipes for you today.

John has been working with me to teach me how to do Facebook Live and how to go out into the park and make videos.

He makes everything sound like an adventure and so exciting to be a part of whatever it is that he's doing.

- JOHN: Between every two pine trees is a doorway leading to a new way of life.

What I love about being an interpreter, well, for one thing, is my office.

It's coming out here, it's connecting to people on the trail, it's connecting to fishermen on the pier, it's running programs out there.

Sometimes it's, you know, going out and checking on wildlife.

Sometimes I'm doing rescues of wildlife.

So, I think that's also a nice thing is that each day is different.

Now this is a Hercules Club.

It's also known as the toothache tree.

I grew up in East Texas.

I grew up in the Piney Woods.

And so every time I come out here and I start in on that trail and look around and just see the orange carpet of pine needles on the ground, I feel like I'm home.

[gentle guitar music] [waves lapping] [waves lapping] [waves lapping, birds chirp] [waves lapping, birds chirp] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] - NARRATOR: This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota--Let's Go Places.