- 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... - This bird is really, really unique in the way that it flies and the way that it forages.

It's actually dragging its lower bill along the edge of the water.

- We're on the Goliad Paddling Trail on the San Antonio River.

You don't have to be a skilled kayaker in order to enjoy the river.

- With all that data that we compile, we can come up with a management plan.

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

[uplifting music] - NARRATOR: Biologists are about to do a well-check on one of the most important islands for coastal birds in Texas.

- TREY BARRON: All right, for those of you that haven't been to Chester Island, welcome.

I've got four groups, Dan, you'll have the green area in the middle that's the thick brush.

Just move slow, try to be quiet and get through as quick as possible.

- NARRATOR: It's the beginning of the nesting season and this is quick bird count.

A rare chance to get a population estimate on all these coastal birds.

- Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

So, I'm counting White Ibis, they're looking pretty good!

I think I have in the sixties so far and we've just got started.

- This count's all part of the Texas Colonial Water Bird Society's survey.

It's an annual census that occurs over a two-week period.

Let's walk check this side over here.

Yeah, we're trying to monitor the status of all these species, some of the species on the island are doing really well.

Brown Pelicans are probably the highest numbers in here.

- NARRATOR: But along the sandy shore, the team searches for one bird in particular.

A bird sometimes seen skimming shorelines and feeding in flight-- the Black Skimmer.

This unique coastal bird is on a downward trend that has biologists concerned.

- TREY: Their numbers have been in decline over the last probably 40 years, they've gone from 10,000 plus nesting pairs on the coast down to around 3,000 nesting pairs on the coast.

It's a species that we're definitely monitoring.

- NARRATOR: No one spends more time monitoring these birds... - Let's try from this side.

- NARRATOR: ...than David Newstead.

- DAVID: So today we are in the Laguna Madre, a stronghold of Black Skimmers, - BIOLOGIST: There's birds everywhere!

- And this is sort of part of a continuing series of studies we've been doing to try and better understand the species itself, the species biology, but also why it's declining.

[Skimmers call] - NARRATOR: To better understand these skimmers, David and his team need to catch some.

He's using a common trapping tool, a noose mat, with hundreds of tiny leg snares.

- DAVID: People have been doing this kind of thing for eons.

It's kind of a pain, but an effective way of trapping birds.

[birds call] What we're going to do is, I'm going to go and place this near a nest.

[birds call] Get out of there as quickly as possible and stand and wait.

All right!

[Black Skimmer calls] Oh!

The bird walked right through and incubated right on top of it.

God!

- DAVID: This bird is really, really unique in the way that it flies and the way that it forages.

You'll see that when its flying along a shoreline, it's actually dragging its lower bill along the edge of the water.

As soon as it hits a fish, it quickly snaps shut and consumes the fish.

The other thing you'll notice when the birds feeding along the shoreline, is that it's wings, instead of flapping just outward, its wings are tucked back and that's so that it can skim along the surface of the water and not get hit by waves.

[soothing music] Ew, land, land, land, ew!

That might be him, that might be him!

There it is that's the one right there!

- CODY SEARS: That's our boy!

[splashing] - DAVID: We are going to need to be as minimally present as possible.

We're going to go and retrieve the bird as soon as that trap is sprung.

- CODY: Sweet!

- DAVID: And remove ourselves from the colony.

So, this is a female, that we captured here.

Cody can you deal with the data sheets!

- CODY: Yeah, I got data.

- DAVID: Going to do A99.

Once we have the bird in hand, we're going to take measurements of the bird.

One zero six point zero, head and bill.

And then we're going to be putting on a small tag that is basically communicating with satellites, with GPS satellites.

And recording that information.

The feathers back in place, the transmitter sort of disappears against the black of the birds back.

- CODY: This is the first time I've seen em up close, so I didn't know their bills were so narrow.

No way, I get to touch em.

Oh wow, that's so cool.

Hi there!

How you doing?

You can see that prehistoric dinosaur sitting in this little feathered creature in front of me.

Little velociraptor for sure.

- It's sort of a fun part of my job being able to handle these amazing animals, but it's also a lot of stress-- I really want to get this bird back to the colony.

- DAVID: Good!

So, the tags that we are putting on right now are going to provide GPS level accuracy.

Be able to see everywhere it's been every 10 minutes since we put the tag on!

- NARRATOR: David now knows exactly what type of habitat they prefer, for feeding and nesting.

It turns out with sea level rise, and higher tides, those favorite nesting sites are shrinking.

- DAVID: There's a limited number of spaces in, along the Texas coast in each different bay system.

There getting smaller and smaller over the years.

We've seen a lot of these islands in the Laguna just vanish in the past uh, 10, 20 years.

- NARRATOR: And some of the bigger islands have fishing camps, taking away some prime nesting habitat.

- DAVID: It's got six cabin leases on it, there's actually two islands with six cabins.

All of these bare areas are just the perfect substrate for Skimmers and Terns.

So, you know, size-wise, there's more suitable space here on this one island alone than there is in just about the rest of the Laguna.

- NARRATOR: With loss of habitat out in the bays, the birds have adapted and set up a nesting colony here in Rockport.

A city park is now Skimmer central.

- DAVID: What's different about this is it's connected to a mainland site-- it's not an isolated little island out there, this is in the middle of a beach park.

- NARRATOR: Though part of the park is protected, nesting numbers are still down.

- DAVID: It's hard to say what this colony is doing because they don't seem to do really that well.

They will fledge a few chicks, some years it's been better than others.

And the overall productivity is still lower than we'd like to see.

- NARRATOR: They hope a camera can shed some light on the problem.

- It's on solar and it's ah, recharging a couple of AA batteries to keep it running so we don't have to disturb the colony too often to check these out.

- DAVID: That's taking a photo every minute.

If the birds get up for any reason, then hopefully, we can understand what it was that got the birds up from that camera.

- NARRATOR: With cameras at nesting sites along the coast, David's team discovers the chief culprit disturbing the colonies.

It's us.

- DAVID: Some of these islands are getting disturbed 20,30 times a day, and the average time that the colony is off the nest during a human disturbance is typically about eight minutes, and that's very, very, a very long time, especially in the heat of the summer in Texas.

- NARRATOR: It's actually illegal to get too close to rookery islands during the nesting season.

- DAVID: So, this is one of the big threats to birds is people fishing too close, wanting to get too close to islands.

- ANGLER: I'm in a big fishing tournament right now, I'd appreciate you give me some room!

- So, this guy's fishing a tournament and even though this guy's too close to the island, he feels that his need and right to fish too close to the island is more important than giving the birds a safe place to nest.

- NARRATOR: If this species is going to survive, it's up to us to make sure these fledglings have a fighting chance.

- DAVID: Without adding young birds, new birds coming into the population, the population's just going to continue to decline, we want to make sure that we provide every bit of protection that we can for the birds so that they can hopefully nest successfully raise young.

- NARRATOR: Before finishing their early summer bird count... - TREY: Here's our nesting Skimmers right here!

- NARRATOR: The biologists do, in fact, find some skimmers.

And their nesting colony looks promising.

- TREY: There's quite a few pairs here, looks like several have got scrapes!

They've got a lot of challenges they have to overcome, so to see an area like this where we've got you know pretty high elevation, they're back away from the beach so hopefully human disturbance won't be a big deal, so this one has a pretty good chance.

- NARRATOR: After the struggles David has seen throughout his study, this small population provides some hope!

- TREY: The future of the skimmers on the coast, it's all about reproduction.

So, it's important that we have protected areas where the birds can come and nest.

And let their populations continue to grow!

[light wind, birds chirping] Celebrating a century of Texas State Parks.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - CHARLES CLAPSADDLE: We're on the Goliad Paddling Trail on the San Antonio River.

It's up a little bit, kind of fast compared to what it usually is, but nice.

[upbeat music] - WESLEY: Little green out here.

- SHAUN: Yeah, it's a little green.

- WESLEY: Lot of catydids.

- We do have a paddling trail here, and we were actually the first state park to have a paddling trail site designated inside a state park.

- WESLEY: It's a wide river, really is.

- BRENDA: It's about 6.1 miles of beautiful pristine river.

The site here in our park is the take out site.

The other developed areas to get on the paddling trail are north of our park.

So once you get to the park, people have to get off the river unless they want to continue to float with no easy access to get off.

- WESLEY: Better than schoolwork.

- Yeah, I'm glad we're out of school for summer.

What I like about here is the scenery, the nature, all the birds and stuff.

The river is real calm.

A good place just to sit out, hang out, and canoe.

- It's a coastal stream, so it has muddy banks.

Grass and trees grow right down to the bank.

You usually see a lot of wildlife because of that.

- Lots of trees.

Water.

- CHARLES: It's good for families.

You don't have to be a skilled canoeist or a kayaker in order to enjoy the river.

Right now, we're just drifting, we're floating on the current.

- I go out here every so often.

I like the river but this is the first time I've been like solo kayaking.

It's always pretty out here.

- BRENDA: People love to come here and camp.

They spend the weekend here and enjoy the float.

It's very quiet and serene.

- CHARLES: The six and a half miles current trail, I can make in an hour and a half, most people take a little over two hours.

We will go pretty close to downtown Goliad, a couple of blocks from the courthouse and you wouldn't know you were near a town.

[crickets and cicadas chirp] You hear crickets and cicadas and birds, but... nothing that sounds like humans.

It's a nice friendly river.

[upbeat music] [engine revs] - Hi I'm Mike, and this is Carl, and today we're going to be doing a creel survey.

[boat engine and soft music] - We're looking for anybody out fishing in a boat.

Once we encounter them, then we'll stop and interview them.

How you doing today?

We're with Parks and Wildlife, we're just conducting an angler survey.

- CARL: We're with Parks and Wildlife, we're doing some angler surveys.

Do you mind answering some questions?

- Our creels on this lake are four hours each.

The sections of the lake and the times that the creels are done are generated at random.

We either go clockwise or counter-clockwise that day.

We'll do a flip of a coin to see which way we're going to go and that's the way we go for the rest of the day.

- How long have you been fishing today?

- How long have you been fishing today?

How long have you been fishing today?

- I guess I started in this spot around... 6:45.

- Been here about an hour and a half.

- I started about six o'clock.

- And how much longer before you finish, you think?

- How much longer?

- Yes, sir.

- Well, it gets pretty hot about 10 or 11 o'clock.

- Okay.

- Gonna try these pillars right here, then I'm gonna quit.

- It helps us keep in touch with what's going on on the lake.

[technical banter] - This is Claire, she's our summer intern.

- Hi.

- So, we're teaching her how to do all this stuff.

- CARL: You want to try it?

- CLAIRE: No... You go for it.

[chuckles] - MIKE: And what are you fishing for today?

- Crappie.

- MIKE: And fishing for what today?

- Mostly catfish.

- MIKE: Catfish?

Okay.

- CARL: What are we going after?

- We started out for crappie, went to catfish, just now going back to crappie.

- MIKE: So just put crappie down.

With all that data that we compile, we can come up with a management plan on what to do for the lake: harvest regulations, size limits, getting funding for boat ramps.

We get to see a lot of this lake.

Everything's different every time you come out.

- You never know what to expect.

- Nothing's ever the same.

I love my job.

It beats sitting behind a desk and looking at a computer screen all day.

[boat engine] - NARRATOR: On a winter day in Austin, Marshall Wright fixes some food for his family.

[skillet sizzling] - MARSHALL: The ducks, I only want to do them to about medium rare.

[knife slicing] Onion, green bell pepper and celery.

What they call the holy Trinity.

- NARRATOR: Marshall has been cooking all his life, but this meal is different from most.

- I'm going to make gumbo.

- NARRATOR: The preparation for it really began in a hunter education class six months earlier.

- INSTRUCTOR: Which one's got the most control over the firearm muzzle?

The one in the middle, absolutely.

- NARRATOR: Marshall's interest in healthy, local food has led him to explore hunting for the first time.

- MARSHALL: Not to stereotype but I don't maybe necessarily look like a hunter.

- NARRATOR: But Marshall does represent a new trend among city-dwellers who want to know more about where their food comes from.

- MARSHALL: That looks good.

We're at the downtown Austin Farmers' Market.

I guess I'll have to try them.

I like the smaller ones as well.

Shopping at farmers' markets in general has started to gain a lot of popularity.

- VENDOR: The smaller ones are $3 and the biggest ones are $5.

- MARSHALL: You can come to the market and get food straight from the source.

It's going to be better for you to eat.

And it's better for the local economy.

Thank you.

[bag crinkling] - Enjoy, brother.

- Because of the rise of obesity in America, because of the Food, Inc. movies, because of the Michael Pollan books, it's hard now to ignore where your food comes from.

[crowd chatter] I hate to say it's trendy, because I think it's people are finally realizing we need to get back to how we shop and how we eat.

- NARRATOR: And Marshall brings back more than food from his trips to the Farmers' Market.

[click] - MARSHALL: I'm actually in the process of shooting a cookbook.

- NARRATOR: Food photography is as much his passion as cooking and eating.

[clicks] - MARSHALL: So much food photography is focused on that finished dish.

I like the process of cooking the food or preparing the food as much as I do the eating of the food, and then to capture that with photography.

- NARRATOR: When Marshall is not at the computer for his photography or his job in social media, he also keeps a blog, about-- you guessed it-- food.

- MARSHALL: My blog is very heavy on photography, but I definitely got into it as a means of exploring my passion for food.

For the most part, I just like to eat.

- NARRATOR: This focus on food has led to Marshall's interest in getting some the traditional way.

- This shotgun here came from my father-in-law.

There is a primal, back to basics element of it that I think is very prominent in food culture right now.

What can we do and how can we find ways to eat that we know what we're eating?

And so hunting seemed to be obviously a logical step to that.

- Marshall Wright.

- NARRATOR: So what now that Marshall has learned the rules of hunter safety?

- You got a 92.

Congratulations.

- Yeah, now what?

- NARRATOR: To get some hands-on experience, Marshall also enrolls in a hunter education field course.

- So today we're going after these birds called skeet.

[chamber clicks] Okay, now it's loaded, ready to go, keep your finger outside the trigger guard until we're ready to fire.

- MARSHALL: Pull.

It's still a little bit intimidating.

- STEVE: Nice.

You have to move the muzzle to the bird.

Okay?

- Pull.

There's more to think about than I thought.

- STEVE: Okay, nice.

What you had problems doing is finding the bird quicker.

- MARSHALL: I've shot a shotgun once.

[gun shot] This was the first time.

- STEVE: Oooh, just below it.

- MARSHALL: Pull.

[gun shot] I hit zero.

I want to bird hunt.

Uh, it's going to take some more practice, but I'll definitely get it.

[gun shot] - STEVE: Oooh, just scratched the left edge of it.

- MARSHALL: I at least got a little piece of one.

You know, it's not 'grab a gun, and go sit out in the woods and shoot something.'

There's a lot that's involved in getting to this point.

I do hope it's successful.

Either way I get to be outside, and we get to be in nature and do something fun.

Yes ma'am, I need to get a hunting license please.

- Okay, and what are you going to be hunting for?

- Uh, for duck.

- Okay.

- MARSHALL: And then I had to go buy a hunting license, which I went and did this morning.

So I'm licensed now officially... and I'm going to get some ammo for the hunt and, yeah, then we'll be ready to go early, 5:30 in the morning tomorrow.

[wind blowing] [duck calls] - GARRETT: Alright, let's go ahead and sit down and get ready.

[duck calls] It was pretty slow.

This property typically will have five to twelve flights of birds.

Get it.

Shoot.

Shoot!

[gun shots] - DAVE: Far off on that?

- GARRETT: No bird.

- GARRETT: We saw four groups of birds work.

But that's part of hunting.

[wind] [duck calls] - MARSHALL: Just sitting there waiting and the anticipation of when the birds are going to come and if they're going to come and what do you do when they come, and you know, you have to go through all the stuff that you learned in hunter education and thinking about your firearm, and just everything about it runs through you in a split second.

It was exciting!

- GARRETT: There are some birds up top.

Take 'em!

[gun shots] Good shot.

Dixie!

[splash] Nice shot, Marshall.

Nice shot.

Marshall did great.

You know, I'm impressed.

Good girl.

- I happened to be lucky and got a couple.

- DAVE: Nice shooting.

- MARSHALL: Thanks!

[wind] [cows moo] - GARRETT: You know, we could go purchase a cow for about $600 if you really want to go home with some meat.

[laughs] These are free range, organic... [acoustic guitar music] - MARSHALL: We didn't see a lot of birds, but we saw enough that it was successful.

[acoustic guitar music] It was fun.

I'm absolutely going to do it again.

Okay, let's eat.

Being able to go do a hunt, and then come back and be able to share it with other people, I think that's, seems to be a nice trend that people are trying to get back to.

Good duck in there.

That tastes nice.

- Daddy, I like your gumbo.

- MARSHALL: Thank you, Maggie.

- Is my face messy?

[laughs] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light wind blowing] [light 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.