Speaker 1: Welcome to Morow Outdoors on News Talk five sixty KLVI.
Speaker 1: This is Chester Moore. A beautiful herd of longhorned cattle
Speaker 1: made their way across a blue bonnet covered meadow, walking
Speaker 1: down a trail from an oak thicket. One particularly massive
Speaker 1: bull stopped and glared at us, so I felt obliged
Speaker 1: to jump out of the truck and shoot photos. Wild
Speaker 1: Wishes is our program that grants wildlife and exotic animal
Speaker 1: encounters for kids who have a critical illness, have lost
Speaker 1: a parent or a sibling, or dealing with other very
Speaker 1: serious issues. We were at Wyo Ranch headquarters near Mountain
Speaker 1: Home in Kerr County and it just completed a wild
Speaker 1: Wish for a little boy named Amos, who got to
Speaker 1: encounter a giraffe and many other exotic animals at the
Speaker 1: legendary Ranch. This thing was easily in the two thousand
Speaker 1: pound range and gave a surreal thrill as buffalo's were
Speaker 1: the topic of our conversation riding down the road. Wild
Speaker 1: Wishes grants those encounters to give kids hope, and it
Speaker 1: was amazing seeing the boys here on this trip, literally
Speaker 1: riding down the road talking about buffalo wanting to ride
Speaker 1: bareback like Indians back in the day, shooting with primitive
Speaker 1: archery equipment and just talking about being alive. You know,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. We were out there and we saw
Speaker 1: this massive bull under the bushes, and the kids were
Speaker 1: so excited, and so was I. I love bison. Bison
Speaker 1: are one of my favorite animals. Under this live oak
Speaker 1: was this majestic bison. The longhorns were cool, but the
Speaker 1: bison was awesome. But then it got better. From behind
Speaker 1: another tree stood up something big and white. At first
Speaker 1: it looked like a bull. When it turned around, chills
Speaker 1: ran up and down my spine. This was no bull.
Speaker 1: It was a white buffalo. Yeah, baby, the great white buffalo.
Speaker 1: I was absolutely blown away. I mean, this is the
Speaker 1: rarest of the rear. We had no idea such a
Speaker 1: creature existed on their huge ranch, and we've not seen
Speaker 1: it if we had not decided to pull over and
Speaker 1: photograph the longhorns. I have no question the Lord had
Speaker 1: his hand on this encounter, and so did the kids,
Speaker 1: who were excited beyond measure. They had seen something awesome,
Speaker 1: and then they locked eyes with a legend, and that
Speaker 1: took it just to an entirely different level. I've had
Speaker 1: many incredible wildlife encounters, and this one ranks right up
Speaker 1: there was seeing great whites in the Pacific. This was
Speaker 1: a lifelong dream come true, and I got to share
Speaker 1: it with three very special kids and a friend who
Speaker 1: is also there and is as big a buffalo fan
Speaker 1: as I am. Part of my love of bison comes
Speaker 1: from knowing their tragic history and the great conservation efforts
Speaker 1: it saved him. According to Texas Bison Association, bison were
Speaker 1: hunted in various ways quote quote before Indians had horses,
Speaker 1: they would encircle the herd with tribe members on foot.
Speaker 1: By getting the animals to meal within the ring they formed,
Speaker 1: Indians were able to fire large volleys of arrows into
Speaker 1: the herd until they downed an adequate number of animals.
Speaker 1: In the sixteenth century, when horses were acquired by the
Speaker 1: Plan's Indians, bison hunting became easier. They used other methods
Speaker 1: to harvest the mighty buffalo, now by stampeding herds over
Speaker 1: a cliff, driving the animal to a large natural trap,
Speaker 1: or into bogs or blind canyons. The most famous hunting
Speaker 1: technique was the horse surrounded several hundred riders would form
Speaker 1: semicircles on two sides of the herd, then move in
Speaker 1: until they created a circle around its entirety. As pressure
Speaker 1: was supplied by the oncoming riders, the bison would begin
Speaker 1: to get confused, start milling around, and eventually stampede into
Speaker 1: a frenzied milling mass. At this point, riders would move
Speaker 1: in and begin the slaughter with showers of arrows or
Speaker 1: plunged lances. Then came the tragic wholesale slaughter of bison
Speaker 1: by European settlers. Now, sadly this is a black mark
Speaker 1: on our history. This was as much to wipe out
Speaker 1: the planes tribes as it was to sell bison parts,
Speaker 1: but it was definitely a market thing. What was once
Speaker 1: a heard of millions was reduced to just a few
Speaker 1: hundred by the late eighteen hundreds recorded to the Texas
Speaker 1: Parks and Whileiffe Department. Legendary rancher Charles Goodnight started the
Speaker 1: remnants of the herd on his Ja ranch in the
Speaker 1: Texas Panhandle in eighteen seventy eight and attempts to save
Speaker 1: the animals that had meant so much to him and
Speaker 1: his family. Quote it was actually his wife that influenced
Speaker 1: the cattle in business tycoon to preserve them before they disappeared,
Speaker 1: so that future generations might be able to see and
Speaker 1: appreciate these special creatures. It says, somehow, against the odds,
Speaker 1: a herd of genetic related Southern bison have managed to
Speaker 1: survive the decades since, and now it all benefit from
Speaker 1: good Night's vision. When the bison were initially donated to
Speaker 1: Texas Parks and wild Department and moved to Caprock Canyon
Speaker 1: State Park in nineteen ninety seven, it was discovered that
Speaker 1: their DNA was different and featured genetics that are not
Speaker 1: shared by any other bison herd in North America. In fact,
Speaker 1: the official Texas State Bison herd at CAPROC represents the
Speaker 1: last remaining examples of the Southern bison plains variety. And
Speaker 1: I think that's just really cool that we have that
Speaker 1: happening here in the great state of Texas. Now many
Speaker 1: ranches proudly race bison, and they are going in numbers
Speaker 1: right in Texas on private land and at places like
Speaker 1: Caprock Canyon State Park. Herds in places like Yellowstone, which
Speaker 1: I've seen almost eye to eye, are flourishing. I'll never
Speaker 1: forget back in twenty sixteen doing this Wild Witch's Encounter
Speaker 1: at Wyo Ranch headquarters. Sitting there with these young children
Speaker 1: and watching them marvel at nature and realizing because I
Speaker 1: knew the history of these animals, if visionary people of
Speaker 1: the past had not stepped in, that encounter would have
Speaker 1: never even been possible. And I thought that was just
Speaker 1: such a beautiful moment. It inspired me to go even
Speaker 1: deeper into what we do in our Wild Witsch's program,
Speaker 1: and you know that program. At the time in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: I think we had like fifteen or sixteen kids in
Speaker 1: the Wishes program. Now we have two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: five and will likely cross the three hundred mark before
Speaker 1: the end of the year, by the grace of God
Speaker 1: and a lot of hard work, you know. I remember
Speaker 1: walking back the truck with these kids. The moms, their
Speaker 1: grandmothers and dads were so excited for the kids and
Speaker 1: for this big kid because I was yelling all over
Speaker 1: the place, and so excited because they knew we saw
Speaker 1: something special. They got to see all of this go town.
Speaker 1: But one thing they did not see, and I can't
Speaker 1: shake or its eyes. We stared into the eyes of
Speaker 1: the white buffalo. None of us may ever be the same.
Speaker 1: We locked eyes with a legend that day. A few
Speaker 1: years after that, I had a very personal encounter with
Speaker 1: the bison. I never forget the sun rising over the
Speaker 1: Lamar Valley Yellowstone National Park, the silhouettes of buffalo dotted
Speaker 1: the horizon truly wild bison, and it was incredible. And
Speaker 1: while slowly driving through this incredible setting, a couple of
Speaker 1: beautiful pronghorn caught my attention, so I pulled over to
Speaker 1: take some photos. Another gentleman had just stopped to do
Speaker 1: the same, and we adjusted our lenses and his wife
Speaker 1: shouted from their truck bison. We turned around and found
Speaker 1: ourselves nearly eye to eye with a massive bull of bison,
Speaker 1: and he looked angry, and I'm talking really angry. We
Speaker 1: had obeyed all the safety protocol of Yellowstone, but it
Speaker 1: was just one of those moments where we were just
Speaker 1: caught off guard, and that happened sometimes. I mean, the
Speaker 1: whites of this dude's eyes showed. He was grunting the
Speaker 1: distance of about fifteen feet, which meant we were about
Speaker 1: one half second away from fifteen hundred pounds of fury.
Speaker 1: We gently backed up, and a couple of other bison
Speaker 1: that just crossed the road, caused attention, and he ran
Speaker 1: at him and slammed into one of them. The other
Speaker 1: younger bull struck back, but then ran off, leaving the
Speaker 1: big bull on its own. And I'll never forget this.
Speaker 1: He proceeded to roll in the dirt, grunt and buck
Speaker 1: up and down like a bronco. I'm not kidding. He
Speaker 1: bucked up and down like a bronco. Yeah, this was
Speaker 1: the same bison that walked right past us a few
Speaker 1: seconds earlier. Bison actually hurt more people in Yellowstone than
Speaker 1: any other animal, including grizzlies. And I almost saw a
Speaker 1: woman get attacked by one doing something goofy, trying to
Speaker 1: get a selfie with one. Yeah, for real, people look
Speaker 1: at him as large cattle from the dairy farm because
Speaker 1: they're unafraid of people in the park. It's called confidence, people,
Speaker 1: not docility. And I'll never forget writing a blog about
Speaker 1: this from the Bozeman International Airport. You can read that
Speaker 1: blog at higher Calling dot and that just search bison
Speaker 1: in the search engine there. It's a pretty funny blog.
Speaker 1: And thinking, you know, I like getting my boots on
Speaker 1: the ground checking out wildlife, but I don't necessarily like
Speaker 1: getting so close to a bison that wasn't real happy,
Speaker 1: you know. But these are the kind of things that
Speaker 1: happen when you're actually out in the field doing wildlife
Speaker 1: encounters and research. And I want to start the program
Speaker 1: off talking about some amazing encounters that happen, hopefully to
Speaker 1: inspire you to get out there and have your own encounters,
Speaker 1: although maybe not quite as close as mine was with
Speaker 1: the bison. And we come back on More Outdoors, so
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the hidden history of the bison.
Speaker 1: I think you're going to find this very very interesting
Speaker 1: hidden history of the bison east of Texas. Yeah, baby
Speaker 1: bison east of Texas. Welcome back to More Outdoors on
Speaker 1: News Talk five sixty KLV. This is chester More. Follow
Speaker 1: me at the chester More. That's the chester More on Instagram,
Speaker 1: Higher Calling Wildlife on Facebook and Higher Calling dot net
Speaker 1: the blog. You need to subscribe to the blog at
Speaker 1: Higher Calling dot net. Just go in there and see
Speaker 1: your prompt to enter your email address. Award winning blog.
Speaker 1: It's really really something that I put a lot of
Speaker 1: effort in, So check that out and super excited to
Speaker 1: talk about bison in the first part of the show.
Speaker 1: If you missed it. Go back and click on KLVA
Speaker 1: dot com the podcast link. You heard me talking about
Speaker 1: an encounter with a white bison. But I've always been
Speaker 1: intrigued by these incredible animals. And you think of them
Speaker 1: roaming the Great Planes and up north. But the fact
Speaker 1: is there were bison all the way to the eastern seaboard.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, bison once inhabited of the eastern United States,
Speaker 1: ranging from Florida to Maine. And they were also in
Speaker 1: places like Tennessee and Louisiana. You don't think of like
Speaker 1: bison in Louisiana, but they were there. Indigenous people revered them,
Speaker 1: utilizing every part of the animal for food, clothing, and shelter.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just the Plains tribes, it was other tribes
Speaker 1: that had, you know, relationships with these bison. So this
Speaker 1: is a very interesting thing. Did a little bit of research.
Speaker 1: Historical records indicate bison presence in Florida when early Spanish
Speaker 1: explorers encountered them the northern regions of the state. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: by the early eighteen hundreds, European settlement, habitat destruction led
Speaker 1: to their extinction. There. French explorers documented bison along the
Speaker 1: Mississippi River in Louisiana in the late seventeen hundreds. However,
Speaker 1: hunting pressure and habitat loss that kind of wiped them out.
Speaker 1: They believe. The last while bison in Louisiana likely disappeared
Speaker 1: in the early eighteen hundreds. Now in Tennessee, the tribes
Speaker 1: such as the Cherokee and the Shawnee relied on bison
Speaker 1: for some of their substance and materials. There's some traditions
Speaker 1: about out them there and by the early eighteen hundred
Speaker 1: unfortunate that European settlement and the over hunting. Now I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the over hunting here. It's not
Speaker 1: like we're going sport hunting, buying a license, killing with
Speaker 1: the bag limit. This was just slaughter, is what it was.
Speaker 1: Just no idea about using any kind of science based conservation,
Speaker 1: just slaughter. And you know, sightings of bison from the
Speaker 1: eastern seaboards from the Carolinas to Main recorded by early settlers,
Speaker 1: and the problem was a lot of fragmented habitat. Things
Speaker 1: turned over to agriculture, problems with agriculture and clashing of
Speaker 1: bison and just killed out in that region. The last
Speaker 1: recorded sighting of a wild bison in Florida encountered in
Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds. There are records of bison all the
Speaker 1: way down to the Florida Keys. In twenty nineteen, I
Speaker 1: went to a bison conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
Speaker 1: and it was a really interesting event. It had a
Speaker 1: lot of tribal interest, It had like people from the
Speaker 1: US Fish and Wildlife Service, it had different state wildlife agencies,
Speaker 1: and there's a real move to get more free ranging
Speaker 1: bison back on the landscape. And I bought a couple
Speaker 1: of different books about bison there and I found it
Speaker 1: so intriguing that there were even records of bison as
Speaker 1: far south as the Florida Keys. I mean, that's pretty astounding.
Speaker 1: You think of a little key deer down there. You
Speaker 1: think of manatees around there and the creeks, and you
Speaker 1: know the Little Bays bison. Now, we know the slaughter
Speaker 1: that happened in the mid eighteen hundreds is responsible for
Speaker 1: the bison disappearing from the plains, but you know, we
Speaker 1: know that there was some over hunting in the east
Speaker 1: and you know, some habitat changes. There's also a possible
Speaker 1: link to cattle being brought over and disease from cattle
Speaker 1: maybe hurting them. You know, the wild sheep were wiped out,
Speaker 1: I mean from two million to about twenty five thousand
Speaker 1: in one hundred years. They were wiped out because of disease.
Speaker 1: And that disease issue still lingers. So there's some there's
Speaker 1: a little bit of controversy over what really eliminated them
Speaker 1: from the eastern United States because we know for sure,
Speaker 1: by the time the railroad hit and by the time
Speaker 1: you know, firearms technology got to where you had repeating rifles,
Speaker 1: and there was an agenda there to not only make
Speaker 1: money from bison parts and get meat for settlers, but
Speaker 1: it was also to cripple the Plains tribe. So, like
Speaker 1: I said in the previous segment, definitely a black eye
Speaker 1: on our you know, just national history as well as
Speaker 1: our natural history because this led to decimated herds. But
Speaker 1: it's so awesome and inspiring to see that bison have returned.
Speaker 1: You know, we have the Plains bison that we talk about,
Speaker 1: but there's also the wood bison. Yes, there're a wood
Speaker 1: bison that live in Canada, and they were native to
Speaker 1: Canada and Alaska and they literally live in the woods.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't think of a bison living in
Speaker 1: the woods, but I want you to. I think although
Speaker 1: the eastern the United States is definitely thicker with trees
Speaker 1: because of the way we grow them now, it was
Speaker 1: more open and savannah like in some areas, But it
Speaker 1: was definitely a thicker area than it was in the
Speaker 1: Great Plains certainly, and even in the West. Bison lived
Speaker 1: in the woods there too. But we're talking about the
Speaker 1: Canadian Wilderness wood bison. There's a European bison as well.
Speaker 1: I mean, just really really neat stuff that's out there.
Speaker 1: And my mission here is to share fun, you know,
Speaker 1: really interesting wildlife stuff you're not gonna hear anywhere else.
Speaker 1: And it's also to inform you about sometimes how the
Speaker 1: history meets the present, you know, like we have done
Speaker 1: so much to help the bison's I mean, it's incredible.
Speaker 1: I got to hunt a bison with a bow and
Speaker 1: arrow when I was twenty three years old. It was
Speaker 1: a dream come true. One shot in the heart with
Speaker 1: my arrow and it went down. Literally when I went
Speaker 1: up to the buffalo, I was teared up because of
Speaker 1: the beauty of this moment of I would not have
Speaker 1: been able to have that happen if it wasn't for
Speaker 1: great conservations in the past, like Charles Goodnight and others.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was such a cool moment, and
Speaker 1: that literally fed my family for a year. I mean
Speaker 1: we didn't buy beef for about a year and a half. Actually,
Speaker 1: I mean we had bison bergers, bison steaks, we had
Speaker 1: bison tacos, we had bison enchiladas, we had all kinds
Speaker 1: of bison stuff and it was so so good and
Speaker 1: it was so rewarding to eat that. And I think
Speaker 1: it's important for those who hunt to connect back to that,
Speaker 1: you know, like get in that moment where we learned
Speaker 1: about our history, get involved in conservation works, and that
Speaker 1: we embraced the harvest of what we do. I don't
Speaker 1: apologize for hunting. I will never apologize for hunting. I hunt,
Speaker 1: and I do kill stock, and I feed my family.
Speaker 1: I mean, whether it's you know, a redfish and red
Speaker 1: vista on the halfshell, you know some really good deep
Speaker 1: fried blue wing teal breast meat which is incredible, the
Speaker 1: sand hill crane and got to harvest are a bison,
Speaker 1: It's all something that we cherish, and I think we
Speaker 1: need to look more at our wildlife history to not
Speaker 1: repeat the mistakes of the past, and also use the
Speaker 1: triumphs of the past, the comeback of the bison, the
Speaker 1: comeback of the big horn, all of these things to
Speaker 1: move forward and do great things for wildlife. You know,
Speaker 1: you even think about song like America the beautiful. You
Speaker 1: know you're talking about, you know, beautiful, for spacious skies,
Speaker 1: for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains. Majesty, I mean,
Speaker 1: we're talking about the natural world here, and we've come
Speaker 1: to the point in the natural world where we are
Speaker 1: wiping out the habitat, and in many cases in America,
Speaker 1: we're doing really good with the actual species on the
Speaker 1: remaining habitat, and now there's too many because we've wiped
Speaker 1: out habitat and they're showing up in downtown. We've got
Speaker 1: to be able to get to the point where we're
Speaker 1: habitat first and want our wildlife to have places to roam.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine my life without wildlife. I've been obsessed
Speaker 1: with wildlife my whole life, and I always will be obsessed.
Speaker 1: And that translates to broadcasts like this. I mean, you
Speaker 1: obviously can hear the passion of my voice. This isn't staged.
Speaker 1: This is real and in our outreaches that we do,
Speaker 1: we connect kids with stuff like this. And it's not
Speaker 1: just kids. It's the kids that are the least. It's
Speaker 1: the ones that are at the back of the line
Speaker 1: that are hiding their head in shame because of abuse
Speaker 1: they've experienced, or you know, whatever's going on in their life,
Speaker 1: or the health trials they have, all of these things.
Speaker 1: These are the kids we bring out on these expeditions
Speaker 1: that have chances to meet like the white Buffalo we
Speaker 1: talked about in the first segment. If you would like
Speaker 1: more information on how you can connect with us and
Speaker 1: help these kiddos, you can go to kingdomzoo dot com,
Speaker 1: kingdomsoo dot com. You can make donations area, you can
Speaker 1: suggest a kid we might want to work with, or
Speaker 1: also go to Higher Calling dot net. You'll click on
Speaker 1: the Youth Conservation Outreach button there and it goes into
Speaker 1: that part of what we do with expeditions. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've been fortunate to have support from people like the
Speaker 1: Houston Safari Club Foundation and CCA and other organizations in
Speaker 1: the past, but we're mainly supported by you the people,
Speaker 1: and you're helping us reach kids all over the place.
Speaker 1: We're doing something in Florida in a few weeks. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be back in Florida in the Keys area in
Speaker 1: late July. We're doing Colorado again, my favorite state. We're
Speaker 1: doing Yellowstone this year. We're doing the Smoking Mountains and
Speaker 1: also helping lots of kids locally through our Kingdom Zoo
Speaker 1: Wildlife Center. Learn more at Kingdomzoo dot com and also
Speaker 1: go to Higher Calling dot net and click on the
Speaker 1: Youth Conservation Outreach link and see how you can help.
Speaker 1: And maybe you know a kid that we can help.
Speaker 1: That's always very important. Come back on more. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk some stuff about wildlife in Texas that I bet
Speaker 1: you didn't know. Welcome back to Moro Outdoors on News
Speaker 1: Talk five sixty k lv I. This is Chuester Moore.
Speaker 1: You know hunting never ends in Texas. I just shot
Speaker 1: a pig at my friend Derek's deer Lee's out in
Speaker 1: Fredicksburg a couple of weeks ago. In fact, we have
Speaker 1: year round exotic and hog hunting and varnmut hunting, but
Speaker 1: the official hunting season has kicked off with dove season
Speaker 1: opening an early teal season coming up. Then we have
Speaker 1: archery only whitetailed, then we have duck season of course,
Speaker 1: with geese mixed in there, and then we have the
Speaker 1: general whitetail season, mule deer season out in West Texas,
Speaker 1: a prong horned season. Seriously, lots of cool stuff going on,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to kind of run through some of
Speaker 1: these and give my thoughts on the opportunities for these
Speaker 1: particular hunts in Texas and give you some nuggets that
Speaker 1: maybe you didn't know of. I mean, dove season is
Speaker 1: kind of like, I'm gonna be honest with you, I've
Speaker 1: never been a huge dove hunter. I love to eat doves.
Speaker 1: I've been dove hunting quite a few times. It's just
Speaker 1: never been something I was like really hardcore about, like
Speaker 1: a lot of guys, But dove hunting in Texas. There
Speaker 1: are more dove killed in Texas than there are living
Speaker 1: in most states there. For example, you know, there's like
Speaker 1: forty million dove in Texas. Let me repeat that, about
Speaker 1: forty million dove in Texas and about four hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dove hunters. If every dove hunter in the state, you know,
Speaker 1: shot you know, ten dove, there'd be four million. Hard
Speaker 1: I don't know what the harvest rate is recently, but
Speaker 1: that you know, most of the time that's somebody going
Speaker 1: one time. But there it's a very very big thing
Speaker 1: in Texas, and there are more dove hunters in Texas
Speaker 1: and there are deer hunters in most states. It's just
Speaker 1: a big deal. And I don't think it quit gets
Speaker 1: highlighted quite enough because it's it's not something people like
Speaker 1: train up for, you know, they just go out usually
Speaker 1: hunt the first couple of weekends and that's it. You know. Actually,
Speaker 1: some of the better dove huntings in the in the
Speaker 1: middle of the dove season, when no one's out there.
Speaker 1: We have white wing dove that are increasing, even in
Speaker 1: Southeast Texas. Of course, mourning dove is the basis of
Speaker 1: most from the hunting. I'm give you a quick story
Speaker 1: about a white wing dove. I was fishing, you know,
Speaker 1: years ago, at a rig that was about three to
Speaker 1: four miles off the Louisiana coast, right off Sabine Passed,
Speaker 1: and there was a and I had I ran a
Speaker 1: picture of this in the Port Arthur News at the time.
Speaker 1: There was a white wing dove sitting on the oil
Speaker 1: rig just taking a rest and I got to think
Speaker 1: this thing flew across the Gulf of Mexico. I mean,
Speaker 1: how crazy is that? That was just a neat little
Speaker 1: thing to see. But dove season is upon. It is
Speaker 1: happening right now. The weather, you know, who knows all
Speaker 1: the rain we're been getting late, we have no rain,
Speaker 1: and then dove season comes, we get a lot of rain.
Speaker 1: But it could benefit the teal hunters putting some fresh
Speaker 1: water out of the marsh, some water in some of
Speaker 1: these ponds. We'll see what happens. But teal season has
Speaker 1: always been a favorite of mine. Blue wing teal are
Speaker 1: the first waterfowl to migrate. They start migrating like in
Speaker 1: August and small numbers, and then like the first full
Speaker 1: moon in September, the full moon in September, they typically
Speaker 1: come in mass and lots and lots of birds. And
Speaker 1: this year is a mega year for blueing teal. Blueing
Speaker 1: teal are getting close to Usurping Mallards is the most
Speaker 1: numerous breeding duck in North America. They're a very very
Speaker 1: successful duck and in my opinion, the finest eating of waterfowl.
Speaker 1: I defy you to find anything better in the waterfowl
Speaker 1: world than chicken fried blue wing teal breast. It's a
Speaker 1: shame to not the size of a turkey or an
Speaker 1: ostrich for that sake, because it's so good. But it's
Speaker 1: very very good meat. And you know, early teal season,
Speaker 1: you can also shoot green wings that they if they're
Speaker 1: out there, or cinnamons, which are you know, cinnamons are
Speaker 1: kind of like an exotic duck to Texas. We don't
Speaker 1: get tons of them. They're mainly a Pacific flyaway bird,
Speaker 1: but they are absolutely beautiful and every once in a
Speaker 1: while someone can get one of those guys. Interestingly, green
Speaker 1: wing numbers are down this year, which will have some
Speaker 1: impact a little bit in the regular duck season. And
Speaker 1: what's interesting about that is blue wings nest in what's
Speaker 1: called the Prairie Pothole region, you know, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Speaker 1: parts of Montana, you know, parts of Minnesota up into
Speaker 1: Prairie Canada. The green wing teal breeds in the boreal
Speaker 1: forest of western Canada, and it's you that area. If
Speaker 1: you look at what happened last year Washington Oregon drawtwise
Speaker 1: also happened across the border in parts of Canada, so
Speaker 1: that probably had a pretty big impact on that. Now
Speaker 1: what I want, I like giving you these nuggets here.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of tea are born in Canada.
Speaker 1: They fly all the way down, some of them into
Speaker 1: South America. Nineteen ninety nine, I hunted blue wing teal
Speaker 1: in Winnie, Texas with Will Baty, who is still in
Speaker 1: operation with Central Flyway Outfitters, and I kid you not
Speaker 1: in December that year. Just a few months later, I
Speaker 1: saw blue wing teal lighting in a cove that I
Speaker 1: was fishing for peacock bass in Venezuela. It's amazing to
Speaker 1: think that little bird could make that big migration, some
Speaker 1: of them all the way down to South America, which
Speaker 1: is just incredible and shows that It's one of the
Speaker 1: things I've always been enamored with waterfowl is the migration.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really a remarkable thing to think about.
Speaker 1: You know, how many calories they got to expend and
Speaker 1: getting that far, and how do they know where they're going,
Speaker 1: And it's just an incredible marvel of God's creation to
Speaker 1: think about what those wants waterfowl do in terms of migrations.
Speaker 1: It just it's really is a mind blowing thing. I
Speaker 1: think it's I think it's absolutely incredible, you know, And
Speaker 1: of course I'm not gonna go consecutive the I'm gonna
Speaker 1: jump right into the waterfowl, the big waterfowl season. You know,
Speaker 1: there are so many voices out there talking about duck
Speaker 1: hunting and some of the problems with federal management in
Speaker 1: terms of allowing you know, certain kinds of crops to
Speaker 1: stand in stopping ducks coming down, and there's all those
Speaker 1: kind of issues that always always float around the waterfowl world.
Speaker 1: And the thing that is unfortunate about that is a
Speaker 1: lot of that does that have anything to do with
Speaker 1: like whether the population's doing well and the habitat's doing well,
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and also just kind of unfortunately on online,
Speaker 1: people like controversy and whether you know, whether you believe
Speaker 1: certain theories or you you know, you're frustrated with the
Speaker 1: Feds because of regulations. Over the last twenty years, I
Speaker 1: think we've missed some of the beauty and majesty that
Speaker 1: just happens in duck season and waterfowl. I mean, incredible,
Speaker 1: incredible stuff, and we've been very fortunate. Think about the
Speaker 1: drought that's happening out west. It's amazing that year after
Speaker 1: year after year, for like the last twenty five years,
Speaker 1: we have had pretty consistent flights of ducks in the
Speaker 1: Prairie Pothole region. Let me tell you something, though, if
Speaker 1: we have a drought like they're having in Nevada and
Speaker 1: parts of California and parts of Utah and parts of Oregon,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be wild, folks. They're gonna have to cut limits.
Speaker 1: People are gonna freak out, Controversy is gonna be worse,
Speaker 1: It's gonna be crazy. But the fact that that land
Speaker 1: up there is so fertile when they do get rain.
Speaker 1: These I've been up there with ducks unlimited before. These
Speaker 1: temporary wetlands are incredible sources of life. And most of
Speaker 1: those ducks that come we're in the Central Flyaway here
Speaker 1: in Texas. If you're listening to Louisia, you're in the
Speaker 1: Mississippi Flyway. So like where I live in Orange, I
Speaker 1: live a few miles from Screen River, so I'm like literally,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm right on the edge of two flyways.
Speaker 1: And most of those ducks come from the Prairie Pothole region,
Speaker 1: and it's important for us to think about what's happening
Speaker 1: on those prairie potholes. You know how many are being
Speaker 1: converted to corn crops for ethanol, when in reality that's
Speaker 1: a subsidized industry and they're destroying native grasslands, and native
Speaker 1: grasslands are radically better for duck nesting and lots of
Speaker 1: other wildlife. So lots of issues, lots of stuff and ducks.
Speaker 1: And I had to mention this stuff because pretty much
Speaker 1: in Southeast Texas, if you mentioned duck hunting, somebody's gonna
Speaker 1: talk about that stuff. And that's fine. We may do
Speaker 1: a program on that later this year with some couple
Speaker 1: of different kind of experts. But I wanted to get
Speaker 1: back to the basis of let's put some focus on
Speaker 1: what's going on in that prairie pod Hoole region, also
Speaker 1: in our wintering grounds, to make sure that we have
Speaker 1: quality duck habitat wherever we at, that we have quality
Speaker 1: duck habitat. That's a very very important thing. And because
Speaker 1: these are migratory birds, literally, what happens in Mexico and
Speaker 1: parts of South America could impact bluing teal. Certainly, what
Speaker 1: happens in Southeast Texas impacts Think about the lack of
Speaker 1: rice agriculture we have now compared to what we did.
Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons we don't have as many ducks,
Speaker 1: we don't have as much food, and we've degraded a
Speaker 1: lot of the wetlands out there with saltwater intrusion, lots
Speaker 1: of stuff. It's a complex mix that makes the waterfowl
Speaker 1: thing tick and it's just really really interesting stuff. And
Speaker 1: we come back on More Outdoors. We're gonna talk and
Speaker 1: some other game animals in Texas. Welcome back to More
Speaker 1: Outdoors on News Talk five sixty klv I. Check out
Speaker 1: my writings at Higher Calling Donnette follow me online at
Speaker 1: the Chestermber on Instagram, and you can also follow me
Speaker 1: a Higher Calling Wildlife on Facebook. And folks, don't forget
Speaker 1: there's a podcast of this program, More Outdoors. Go to
Speaker 1: KLVI dot com, click on the podcast link at the
Speaker 1: top of the page. Listen to archival programs going back
Speaker 1: several years, and you can listen via the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: Talking about the hunting seasons in Texas covered the dove thing,
Speaker 1: went really in depth into some waterfowl stuff and of
Speaker 1: course deer season. I mean that's Texas is a deer
Speaker 1: hunting state. I mean, that's that's the thing you think Texas,
Speaker 1: you think deer hunting, and of course the white tail season,
Speaker 1: both archery and the general season is coming up. And
Speaker 1: you know, Texas deer numbers have really went up the
Speaker 1: last about three years, and it shows you what drought
Speaker 1: can do. You know, we're back in a drought cycle,
Speaker 1: but for about three years we were out of a
Speaker 1: drought cycle in a lot of South Texas and the
Speaker 1: Texas Hill Country, and our deer numbers went from being
Speaker 1: about three point seventy five million to over five million
Speaker 1: in Texas. And that's astounding because not only did they
Speaker 1: go over five million, they went over five million with
Speaker 1: less habitat. Have you been in the Texas Hill Country lately?
Speaker 1: There's things developed from one end to the other, and
Speaker 1: so is a lot of these Texas and parts of
Speaker 1: South Texas. So it's a marvel to see. But white
Speaker 1: tail numbers are way up, and you know, people predict
Speaker 1: this and they predict that about white tail season in Texas. Look,
Speaker 1: white tails are not migratory. They don't move really long
Speaker 1: distances like elk do and things like that. So deer
Speaker 1: hunt's going to be what it's going to be. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot a lot of it in Texas, we say, well,
Speaker 1: if we uh, you know, if the acrons aren't real
Speaker 1: bad this year, we'll have them coming to the corn.
Speaker 1: In other states where baiting's not legal, that's not an issue.
Speaker 1: But I think they're gonna be a lot of big
Speaker 1: deer killed this year, just judging from what I'm hearing
Speaker 1: from people seeing stuff on game cameras. And look, it
Speaker 1: depends on where you're hunting and how much time you
Speaker 1: spend in the woods and sort of the luck of
Speaker 1: the draw on the deer thing. But Texas white tail
Speaker 1: numbers are big and they've boomed again. It's pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: I didn't know we would ever get back up to
Speaker 1: that five million level that it was for so many
Speaker 1: years of my career doing this. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: an interesting thing to look at. Something else that's went
Speaker 1: up as mule deer populations. I don't have the current
Speaker 1: mule deer essen, but I believe it's back again up
Speaker 1: around two hundred thousand plus mule deer. You got to
Speaker 1: figure this is only in parts of the Panhandle, and
Speaker 1: it's in the trans Peikos that we have these mule deer,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's amazing to me how many Texans
Speaker 1: don't realize we have a vibrant mule deer population and
Speaker 1: I think one of the number one if you're in
Speaker 1: East Texas. That's a long shot. But almost all mule
Speaker 1: deer huntings on private land in Texas and it costs
Speaker 1: big bucks. Texas produces some big mule deer and there
Speaker 1: is an aura about getting a Texas mule deer, so
Speaker 1: there are some mega mega mule deer taken and it
Speaker 1: costs mega megabucks. There are a few draw hunts, like
Speaker 1: at Black Gap Wildlife Management Area, different places out there.
Speaker 1: There's like you know, different things with Texas parks and wildlife,
Speaker 1: but it's not like parts of East Texas where you
Speaker 1: can go hunt national forests for white tails. We don't
Speaker 1: have any national forest, you know, anyone can show up
Speaker 1: stuff our units like you do in Colorado and get
Speaker 1: a tag. In Texas for mule deer that is all
Speaker 1: privately owned. Other than a few places. I mean, they
Speaker 1: do a few hunts at Elephant Mountain, Black Gap, Sierra Diablo,
Speaker 1: I think Big Ben Ranch, not the National Park may
Speaker 1: have some hunts, but other than that it's all private.
Speaker 1: So that's way I don't hear a whole lot about it.
Speaker 1: Something you hear even less of is the prong horn
Speaker 1: season in Texas. There is a limited prong horn season
Speaker 1: in Texas. There's been any animal in Texas has been
Speaker 1: beaten down by drought and predation, all kinds of problems.
Speaker 1: It is the prong horn. Also caught a pronghorn, anal,
Speaker 1: although not technically an antelope. Yeah, we got prong horns
Speaker 1: in Texas, and once again, almost all of it is
Speaker 1: on private land. That's why I don't hear a whole
Speaker 1: lot about that. And they're not real, real numerous. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you hear someone going pronghruning, they're probably out in Wyoming.
Speaker 1: They're probably out in New Mexico or somewhere. And I
Speaker 1: have a real affinity for these animals. You know. The
Speaker 1: first time I really saw like a lot of them
Speaker 1: was about four years ago. But the first ones I
Speaker 1: ever saw, believe it or not, we're in California walking
Speaker 1: out of a rice field on the edge of the
Speaker 1: Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. Apparently it's some kind of rare
Speaker 1: subspecies of pronghorn, but they're walking out of a rice field,
Speaker 1: which completely blew my mind because you think of a
Speaker 1: pronghorn being out in the distant prairies and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: The places I probably seen the most you're out in Nevada.
Speaker 1: When I was driving between Reno and Las Vegas looking
Speaker 1: for big horns, I came across the stretch of military property,
Speaker 1: which most of that out there is military property, and
Speaker 1: there are prong horns everywhere, super beautiful animals. And my
Speaker 1: favorite pronghorn memory is photographing these two bucks fighting for
Speaker 1: like thirty minutes and I finally got tired of shooting pictures.
Speaker 1: They're literally running circles around me, and I went down
Speaker 1: the road and I found a grizzly. Some ladies were
Speaker 1: taking pictures just grizzly sow way out there and cubs.
Speaker 1: I come back like two hours later and they're still
Speaker 1: throwing down. It was hilarious. But they are a very
Speaker 1: underappreciated game animal. And look, no game animal is affordable
Speaker 1: these days if you do an outfitted hunt, not for
Speaker 1: like like we of a really easily affordable anybody can do.
Speaker 1: But they are probably the most affordable big game animal
Speaker 1: out there. And the success rates even for bow hunting
Speaker 1: are very high because they come to these water holes.
Speaker 1: In the summer, they put these like shoot through ground
Speaker 1: blinds out and the prong horns walk up to them.
Speaker 1: Really really cool, special animal. And you know we have
Speaker 1: them in Texas. There's also a huntable population in Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: so we're sort of, you know, surrounded by prong horns
Speaker 1: at least half the state. Super super beautiful and the
Speaker 1: fastest animal in North America. I kid you not. And
Speaker 1: I got a great story on prong horns. So when
Speaker 1: I was in Yellowstone last year, I was in Lamar
Speaker 1: Valley and which is an incredible place. It's just like
Speaker 1: an open valley between mountain ranges and it's like twenty
Speaker 1: six miles long. The road through there with just a
Speaker 1: two lane road and that's it, and probably twenty six
Speaker 1: to thirty miles wide. It's like my dream place because
Speaker 1: there are prong horns, elk fu, mule deer, there's big
Speaker 1: horns in part of the mountain part of it, grizzlies,
Speaker 1: black bears, lots of trout in the streams. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just like epic and bison all over the place,
Speaker 1: wool gray wolves. It's amazing, right, It's just dream place.
Speaker 1: So I'm out there and I see these two wolves,
Speaker 1: and I got like a crappy picture because it was
Speaker 1: literally like a mile away. But you see a black
Speaker 1: wolf and a regular standard colored gray wolf, and there
Speaker 1: are two prong horn and they you I'm watching them
Speaker 1: trying to sneak up on the prong horn, and the
Speaker 1: prong horn let him get about fifty yards and his
Speaker 1: prong horn like hit hyper space like Consilo does't of
Speaker 1: lineum Falcon and star Wars just cho out of there,
Speaker 1: and the wolves try to sneak back up and the
Speaker 1: next time they let him get like thirty yards and
Speaker 1: then they just boom, took off again. The wolves are
Speaker 1: getting a lot slower here, and they finally in the
Speaker 1: little these pronghorn let him get about twenty five yards away,
Speaker 1: and they just took off like a bolt of lightning.
Speaker 1: The wolves like, forget it, can't do it. It's just funny.
Speaker 1: They were literally trying to hunt those pronghorn and when
Speaker 1: they're sitting there, they were like exhausting the prong horn
Speaker 1: and looking at them from like, you know, half a
Speaker 1: mile away, which was hilarious. I heard a bison came
Speaker 1: through and the lead bison was a cow and she
Speaker 1: had a baby with her, and dude, they looked at
Speaker 1: those wolves and wolves hijacked out of there. Man, they
Speaker 1: wouldn't want nothing to do with those mean mama bison.
Speaker 1: You know you're hearing that enthusiasm in my voice and
Speaker 1: these anecdotes about things that we have in Texas. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't think about pronghorn and mule ear and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff that much. We talk about big
Speaker 1: horns on here quite a bit. We have a lot
Speaker 1: of great resources. But that enthusiasm that you hear my
Speaker 1: voice there, that's the important stuff. Look, folks, life is hard,
Speaker 1: sometimes very hard, and our world is falling apart around us.
Speaker 1: But when you go out into the great outdoors, you
Speaker 1: think about God's creation, God himself and the majesty of
Speaker 1: the creation. I get to go see wildlife stuff. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't always get to be the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone,
Speaker 1: which I would love to be right now. It's a
Speaker 1: great time of year to be there. But just being
Speaker 1: out in the swamp, being on the deer lease, being
Speaker 1: out in the coastal prairie, being on the bay, being
Speaker 1: in the golf of Mexico, you never know what you're
Speaker 1: gonna see. What you're gonna experience, and I guarantee you
Speaker 1: what you're gonna see and experience there is better than
Speaker 1: where you do sitting in front of the TV or
Speaker 1: the computer screen. You need to get recharged and inspire
Speaker 1: to go back out there. And you know, Hunting Seasons
Speaker 1: series we've been talking about. We got some cool opportunities
Speaker 1: in Texas and I never want you to take that
Speaker 1: stuff for granted. To me, it's important that we don't
Speaker 1: take this stuff for granted because it's easy to do.
Speaker 1: And you know, make a goal set up and save
Speaker 1: money for a prong horn hunt or a mule deer
Speaker 1: hunter or whatever you want to do, or fly fishing expedition.
Speaker 1: I did that last year. Say that for about a
Speaker 1: year and me and my buddy went to Florida fishing
Speaker 1: and caught bonefish and peacock, bass and large mouth and
Speaker 1: tartan and all kind of cools. Great things can still
Speaker 1: happen even though the war old's falling apart around us. Folk,
Speaker 1: God bless you, and have a great outdoors weekend.