Great Trinity Forest and the Big Swamp

Sabal minor palms growing on the floor detritus of the Great Trinity Forest, Dallas Texas, June 7, 2014

The deepest part of the Great Trinity Forest lies here. One that is rarely if ever visited by humans. The lair of water moccasins, snakes hanging from trees, snorting feral hogs, spiders the size of your hand and chest high poison ivy. We were greeted by all of that fifty feet from the road. We had miles to explore beyond into the only known stand of palms growing in Dallas. A special and fragile place protected by impossible terrain and veiled secrecy on the location.

Master Naturalist Bill Holston moving through a shaft of early morning light in the otherwise dense and dark forest

 

Flash required to highlight the flowering stems of the palm

Dark. Even on the brightest of June mornings. The sun's rays strain to reach under the double dappled canopies of mature pecans, walnuts and oaks. The exceptional experience is one that would one would think to be found afar from Dallas. Maybe Big Thicket or swamps on the Sabine hold such caliginous and musky spots. No. It exists inside the city limits. Fitting that such a place holds the most biodiversity in the Great Trinity Forest. One of the more unique species found here, an outlier species that defies the status quo is the Sabal minor palm.

The Sabal minor, the Dwarf Palmetto, is an understory palm generally occurring in low-lying, swampy habitats. Sabal minor occurs from Southeastern Oklahoma and Texas eastward to Florida and North Carolina. It is a wetland species that thrives in swamps, floodplains and backwater regions of the southeast where the land is often inundated by prolonged periods of water.

Budding flowers on a Sabal minor, Great Trinity Forest, Dallas Texas, June 7, 2014

Three foot long flower stalks appear this time of year, covered with small, yellow-white, fragrant flowers  The flowers are followed by small berries that ripen August through October. The berries ripen from green to black on a branched cluster shorter than the leaves. Flowering and fruiting are not necessarily annual events, and some years see more abundant flowering than others. Even when flowering is abundant, fruit production is erratic; the causes are unknown.

Sean Fitzgerald works through the bright sun and very dark shadows which is uncommon in North Central Texas

Sabal Arecaceae constitutes sixteen species of palms that are distributed in the eastern woodlands and coastal plains of the Southeastern United States. Spanish explorers who landed on what is now the Gulf coasts of the United States immediately noticed the “palmito” or little palms growing everywhere. The “palmetto” name has since been applied in common names to these small palms.

Sabal minor dwarf palmetto or swamp palmetto has a solitary subterranean(underground) stem and rarely seen above ground in North Texas with 4–10 dark green leaves. It is thought that the trunks are subsurface to aid in protection from freezing cold weather and frozen conditions. Hardier than many palms, these plants have endured countless cold snaps and ice storms that few of their southern counterparts will ever experience. These plants made it through some of the coldest winter weather conditions that North Texas has experienced in many years. The cold weather of December 2013 sent temperatures in Dallas into the near single digits for days. Cold hardy and the ability to thrive in extremes make the plants here a special and unique colony.

Biologist Scott Hudson and Photographer Sean Fitzgerald checking out feral hog damage in an ephemeral section of swamp, dried after recent rains in May

A mushroom growing up through a decayed pecan limb on the forest floor

Honeybee hive in a Bois d' Arc tree

Years of fallen leaf litter, branches and storm debris cover the ground in this area. This type of wet and dark environment provides the ideal conditions for fungus species to thrive on the slowly decaying material.

A number of larger trees here have voids in them. Seen at left, a large honey bee colony has built a hive about 8 feet up in a cavity of a Bois d' Arc tree. Many Bois 'd Arc trees exist in this area. Tough and resistant to nearly all diseases, they can live centuries in the riverbottoms under ideal conditions. These trees prefer a slightly higher elevation just out of the immediate floodplain on slightly drier ground.

Red bellied woodpecker in a cedar elm

Other species of trees found in this area include pioneer species like ash and cedar elm.





The Red-bellied Woodpecker is a familiar year round resident of forests in the eastern half the United States  It is a bird of densely wooded lowlands and bottomlands, open forests and swamps. It too uses the voids and cavities of trees. The bee hive and the woodpecker seen in the photos here were taken within 100 feet of one another.




  




Engaging the formal swamp

Acres and acres of snake filled swamp that we slogged though

Ankle deep water in the flooded sedge, acres of it

The goal for this hike was to push through the Sabal minor groves, ash bottom and pockets of heavy ragweed to reach the immense and large water bodies we hope will hold tropical wading birds later in the summer.

Lots of over banking events this spring have created ideal aquatic habitat and food for wading birds, snakes and frogs. Getting there requires wading through flooded aquatic grasses that are prime habitat for water moccasins and alligators. Called sedge, this aquatic grass in the lifeblood of environments like this.

Black Crowned Night Heron in a pocket pool surrounded by sedge

In Texas, there are over 100 species of sedges and they are difficult to identify without using detailed botanical indexes. In general, sedges are perennial plants that resemble grass, grow in shallow water or damp soils, and can reach 3-4 feet in height. Sedges often grow in thick clusters called tussocks.

Submerged portions of all aquatic plants provide habitats for many micro and macro invertebrates. These invertebrates in turn are used as food by fish and other wildlife species (e.g. amphibians, reptiles, ducks, etc.). After aquatic plants die, their decomposition by bacteria and fungi provides food for many aquatic invertebrates. Sedges are considered good wildlife plants. Sedges are grazed by muskrats, nutria, and rabbits, while the seeds are consumed by waterfowl and small birds.

Panorama of open water, Great Trinity Forest

The sedge and willows break open into the bright brilliant light of a true swamp with beaver built islands, beaver slides, copses of willow studded islands and high tree canopies that line the water's edge for hundreds of yards.

A first look at a promising site for dispersal birds later in the summer. Left to right, Sean Fitzgerald, Bill Holston, Scott Hudson. Scott with the field glasses is observing a Yellow Crowned Night Heron on the opposing shore

Tri-colored Heron with a sunfish

There is a certain recipe for attracting wading birds to bodies of water. The ideal conditions are lots of food, shallow water, good cover and a secluded environment from predators. This unnamed body of water meets all those criteria and more.

Great Egret in breeding plumage, note the neon green around the nose

The difficult wading hike to make it here for a human is actually a great asset to one wanting to observe wildlife. Other bodies of water similar to this like Lemmon Lake in Joppa Preserve, require a long slow belly crawl across grass to reach the shoreline. Here, at this location, the dense treeline all but obscures a person for wildlife viewing up close.

Checking out the water depth and making mental field notes

High quality habitat like this is very rare in Dallas. It attracts birds seldom seem in other places in town. The area acts as an incubator for many animal species to raise their young, it was clearly evident that birds, especially the Yellow Crowned Night Heron had a nearby rookery.

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Rough Green Snake in an Oak

Rough green snakes are typically found on forest edges near ponds or lakes. Although they are arboreal snakes, they forage in dense vegetation along pond and lake shorelines during the day. Nights are spent coiled in the branches of trees. Rough green snakes choose perches based on distance from water sources, height in branches, and thickness of the branch.

Some Birds Of The Swamp

Tri-colored Heron, Snowy Egret and White Ibis, Great Trinity Forest, June 7, 2014

Three birds featured above, all wading birds of near similar size and height with all very different methods of catching prey.

Perhaps a decade ago, the sight of a White Ibis was a rare occurrence in Dallas. Same with the Tri-Colored Herons who, even today still exist on ornithological range maps as birds of the Gulf estuaries and Louisiana swamps.

White Ibis foraging for food

This spot is so remote and so unexpected to have humans visit that we were able to spend a long length of time inside the shade of the trees observing not only the feeding habits of these birds but watching many of the birds fly directly over our heads and land directly in front of us, 20-30 feet away.

Snowy Egret

When foraging, the Snowy Egret walks upright with the neck slightly arched, and it flies strongly with deep wing beats, the yellow feet visibly trailing behind the body. It is an extremely vocal heron, particularly during aggressive encounters, when a characteristic “rah” call is emitted.The Snowy Egret will often shake their legs and feet, agitating the water and mud to stir up prey underneath.

Snowy Egret prowling for prey

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

The snowy egret is often confused with the juvenile Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea), but may be distinguished by the pure white tips on the wing feathers, the solid black bill and the bright yellow feet, which give the impression that the bird is wearing gloves.

Green Heron

The Green Heron is sometimes called the Green-Backed Heron. It is a smallish heron that is about the size of a large crow. It is a foot and a half to two feet in length. The Green Heron has a dark head with a small black crest. Its back and wings are dark gray-green to dark gray-blue. Its neck is rust colored. It has a dark bill and its legs are orange or yellow. Elusive little birds that are very hard to photograph in flight.

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron is a migratory bird that resides here along the Trinity River in Texas  Unlike other night heron species, the yellow-crowned forages both late in the day and night. It forages much like other herons by wading through water waiting for its prey to come within striking distance. Also, unlike the great heron which many have seen standing motionless like a statue in many Texas waters, the yellow-crowned will stir up its quarry by wading briskly at the waters edge. With a quick dancing motion, the dagger like bill stabs its prey.  The prey of a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron normally consists of fish, frogs, grasshoppers, and occasionally snakes, but its primary diet is crustaceans.

Juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Heron on the branch of a willow

Tri-colored Heron

The Tri-colored Heron's signature movements, aesthetic features and picturesque plumage draw it apart from the other birds. The Tri-colored Heron's color is a slate blue/dark blue gray color. It has light greenish/yellowish legs and the color on the beak matches its legs. It also has a white stripe on its purple neck. The heron's white belly gives it its unique identity. It is named the Tricolored Heron because of these three different shades.

It is the only dark colored bird with a white underbelly in the heron family. The Tri-colored Heron usually measures a little over two feet in length and has a little over three foot wingspan.

White Ibis

Because they require shallow water for feeding, many white ibises are found in coastal, aquatic environments such as ponds and lakes or inland wetlands. White Ibises are primarily found in southern coastal regions of the Gulf states and during the summer and move inland after the breeding and nesting seasons. Called "dispersal", the wading birds head inland from the coast in search of slowly drying ponds and beds. Because water depth is of the upmost importance for their feeding and reproductive behaviors, White Ibises may shift locations due to the rise and fall of water levels.

White Ibis in the Great Trinity Forest June 7, 2014

I-20 Dowdy Ferry Gateway Park and Horse Trail

Angel the horse takes a break from a trail ride to McCommas Bluff at the Dowdy Ferry Gateway Trail and park, May 25, 2014 Dallas, Texas

Location: 2081 Dowdy Ferry Road Dallas, Texas
GPS 32.680542,-96.677585
Gravel trailhead parking lot with horse trailer parking
Picnic/BBQ facilities chemical toilets and water fountains
Old gravel quarry turned fishing pond with concrete trail around shore, 1/3-1/2 mile of concrete

Dowdy Ferry Trail Map. Red trail(unwalkable and unrideable in many sections). Better route is the grey line from the trailhead that is open chaparral country and has offshoots that lead into the woods

Trails:
 -1/3-1/2 mile of Concrete Trail and mixed surface trail around perimeter of pond
-2 mile Double track trail linking this park with McCommas Bluff Preserve(no motorized vehicles allowed)
-Horse Trail through woods a poorly constructed mud pit that loosely follows the Trinity River from the I-20 trailhead towards McCommas Bluff and peters out behind Lincoln Memorial Cemetery.

Easy access by mountain bike using existing dirt bike paths and routes from various trailheads in the Great Trinity Forest and Strava or Garmin based routes available online.

Across what is now the mid-west United States in the late 1830s and early 1840s, there was an over abundance of labor, scarcity of money and farmers were unable to sell crops for a good price at market. Nearly all citizens were engaged in trade and bartered for goods and services with little chance of turning a buck. The high rate of unemployment in the states like Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Tennessee had people looking for new places to grow roots and build a new life. For many residents, Texas fit that bill.

Poppies and Bachelor Buttons at the I-20 Gateway Park, picnic facilities in the background

Quite a few Americans got a good look at Texas real estate firsthand either through the service during the Texas Revolution or from the Mexican War a few years later. One such Mexican War veteran and Illinois resident was Allanson Dawdy. Born in 1826, he left home at the age of 20, in 1846 to join the United States Army under command of Colonel JJ Hardin. Men from all walks of life were brought together creating a volunteer army from laborers, farmers, blacksmiths, lawyers and doctors. They saw action at the famed Battle of Buena Vista against General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna himself, in what has become one of the most well known battles of the Mexican War. Dawdy, a young man of 21 liked what he saw in Texas and after his military service planted roots here in Dallas County. His name, now misspelled as Dowdy became the namesake of one of the most well known roads in Dallas, Dowdy Ferry Road.

Bees gathering the pollen of poppies in a mass planted area at Dowdy Ferry Park

The parkland here was first settled by William Shelton in the 1840s, an Illinois veteran from the Mexican War. The bluffs carried his name, Shelton's Bluff until shortly after the Civil War. In 1850, he married into the Dawdy Family who ran a ferry service on the Texas National Highway across the Trinity River downstream a few miles. Pronounced "Dowdy", the misspelling took and Dowdy Ferry Road is now over the old Texas National Highway route.

Together only three families, Beeman, Shelton and Dawdy owned most of the land along the Trinity just south of what is now Fair Park to Hutchins, in what was then Nacogdoches County in the Republic of Texas. The McCommas family purchased the Shelton land after the passing of William Shelton. The name Shelton's Bluff stuck through the Civil War, eventually changing names to McCommas Bluff on maps in 1880. 

Illinois native Allanson Dawdy (1826-1901) came to Dallas County in 1847. By 1854, he was granted a license to operate a ferry at this site on the Trinity River, the southernmost crossing at the time in Dallas County. An important route for citizens living on both sides of the river, the ferry continued in operation until about 1880. Ferry charges included one dollar for a wagon with four or more animals, ten cents for a man and horse, and five cents for a person on foot. The first permanent bridge was installed at this site in 1888.

Now spelled and pronounced Dowdy Ferry, the road and bridges bearing the name form a wide arching loop from Pleasant Grove towards Hutchins. 


Black Bellied Whistling Duck Dendrocygna autumnalis aka Pato Maizal  "The Cornfield Duck Of Mexico"

Black Bellied Whistling Ducks Dendrocygna autumnalis at the Dowdy Ferry rock quarry turned fishing pond May 25, 2014

It's a rare sighting for Dallas, tropical Black-bellied whistling ducks, also known as black-bellied tree ducks, are odd birds and an odd sight. Taxonomists categorize them closer kin to geese than true ducks. They don’t dabble. They don’t dive. They wade in shallow water with their spindly legs and use their long necks to bend over to graze on grasses and aquatic vegetation.

Beautiful in flight, these dark chestnut-brown birds have bright-white wing patches with a pinkish-orange bill and feet that hang behind them. Hens and drakes share similar patterns with a slight deeper contrast in color for the drakes. While flying, they can not be confused with the buff-colored fulvous whistling duck also found in the same regions – or any other duck, for that matter.

Mating pair of Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks at the Dowdy Ferry park pond

These birds are found in great numbers across Central and South America where, in some locales, they are referred to as “Cornfield Ducks” as they plague grain fields and are treated as such. In the US, their range is limited to the southern limits of the Gulf Coast states, though wayward birds have been found in northern states. Their population is actually expanding north and why they are now infrequent visitors to the Trinity River Bottoms.

Whistlers don’t migrate, in the true sense of waterfowl, but they flock up in groups to travel back and forth across their range. As the moniker “tree duck” implies, they nest in holes of trees, and their webbed feet have needle-sharp talons to help them perch on branches. There’s also a reason they are known as whistling ducks. They are very vocal; their peeping whistling while in flight betrays their approach.

Tri-Colored Heron Egretta tricolor

Tri-colored Heron fishing at Dowdy Ferry pond at the Dowdy Ferry Park and Horse Trail, May 25, 2014

Another seldom seen bird in the DFW area is the Tri-Colored Heron formerly known as the Louisiana Heron. Up until several years ago their range was thought to be that of Southeast Texas, Big Thicket and the huge expansive swamps of the Gulf Basin. If you know where to look, you just might find one in the Great Trinity Forest.

The Tri-colored Heron is a medium-size wading bird named for its three main colors: bluish-gray, purple and white. Its head, back and wings are a dark bluish-gray. The back of the neck is purple. The belly is white. The Tri-color also has a narrow white streak with delicate rust-colored markings down the front of its neck. The eyes are bright red. The legs are pale green or yellow. The bill is usually yellow at the base and has a dark tip

Tri-colored Heron making a surge in deeper water for prey

 Foraging in open or semi-open wetland areas, the tricolored heron tends to hunt in deeper water than other heron species, feeding mainly on small fish but also eating insects, crustaceans and frogs. It uses a variety of hunting strategies, including standing still, patiently waiting for prey to come within striking distance, and a running pursuit with the head held low to the water and the bill stabbed at prey with an almost horizontal action

The Tri-colored Heron is more active than the larger herons. This bird does not patiently stand and wait when feeding. It walks through shallow water in a darting fashion, crouching and weaving as it moves along. Sometimes it raises its wings to cast a shadow on the water so it can spot its prey. It lunges and prances, then shoots its bill into the water to catch a fish or an aquatic insect.












Video footage of Tri-colored Herons feeding and nesting last year in Dallas, Texas just off the old river meanders near Inwood and I-35. The birds roosting here commute a short distance, about 1/4 mile to fish the ponds that line the floodway.

Rastro del Caballo -- No Bueno

Worst trail in the Great Trinity Forest? You bet. Worst built trail in DFW? Most likely.

Much of the trail here is a scraped bulldozed path through the woods cut in the spring of 2013. Six to eight feet wide in most spots it's about a mile and a half long. No formal signs exist and it loosely follows the Trinity River. From the parking lot the trail travels near due west till it reaches a high bank with a view of the mouth of Five Mile Creek.

Sand ballast added to the underlying clay in an attempt to dry up some of the worst mud sections. Notice how the sand has migrated out into the woods, causing more of a problem.

It sits off the "new channel" of the Trinity, a channelized section of river that was straightened in the 1970s for a planned inland barge route that never materialized.

The woods here are a rather remarkable stand of Ash, Pecan and some large Bur Oaks. The Virginia Wild Rye has just about gone to seed as of this writing in late May and will soon turn from brilliant green to a uniform color of khaki brown.

The trail itself was built slightly below grade. When scraped/bladed the trail was a natural depression which tends to hold water for extended periods. A year ago I remarked on my blog about the problem and thought one good overbanking flood or two would turn it belly up and ruined. Still waiting on that big flood.

Allanson Dawdy who founded Dowdy Ferry and many of the old pioneers never built horse trails and roads through this area for they knew that with any rain, the clay mud becomes an unworkable mess for weeks on end. The old timers picked the high ground, up in the sand and out of what we now call the hundred year flood plain. Old stories of hunters and fisherman in this area never mention horses, it was always traveled on foot.

Somehow we as modern day Dallasites forgot this lesson and as such created a problem with no good solution. Food for thought if anyone else has a hankering for building horse trails down yonder.

Out of the dozen horses at the park that day, only one ventured down the trail. The rider came back in five minutes and yelled "No Bueno" to the rest of the horseback riders. They were frustrated but understood that it's not worth injuring your beloved horse on a poorly built trail. They hit the dirt road up to McCommas Bluff instead.

Hitched to a post near the trailhead, these horses were not taken on the horse trail through the woods due to ankle busting conditions of the trail. They were ridden up the old dirt road instead

The old double track road to McCommas Bluff

Eye of the storm as heavy rain encroaches on the Great Trinity Forest just north of the I-20 Dowdy Ferry Park on May 25, 2014. A lone pecan tree stands in the middle of a field featuring Clasping Conflower and emergent Giant Ragweed

Yes, you are seeing double. Identical twins Mario and Michael wearing identical riding attire on the Dowdy Ferry dirt road trail to McCommas Bluff

The road here is actually a right of way for a utility sewer line that sends sewage down to the wastewater treatment plant in far Southeast Dallas near the community of Sand Branch.

The open vistas of immense horizon-to-horizon coneflowers are an impressive sight this time of year. Soon the Giant Ragweed will takeover, growing to impressive heights of 8 feet or higher through this area. This same ROW if followed through McCommas Bluff Preserve will lead you across Elam Creek and will link up with Phase II of the Great Trinity Forest Trail just north of the pedestrian bridge across the Trinity near the Audubon Center.

Lemon Beebalm along the doubletrack trail at Dowdy Ferry

Known by a number of common names, lemon beebalm is a 1-2 ft annual with unusual, tuft-like, lavender to pink, spiked flower heads. Each elongated spike is punctuated by whitish or lavender, leaf-like bracts. Several stems grow from the base and are lined with pairs of spear-shaped leaves.  Horsemint has a distinctive citrus or lemony scent when the leaves are rubbed or crushed

Swallowtail feeding on lemon bee balm near the Dowdy Ferry Park

There must be at least 3-4 distinct subspecies of lemon bee balm aka Horsemint in the Great Trinity Forest. Some stands near Joppa Preserve are larger, rougher and nearly white, while others near Scyene Overlook have a deep purple appearance. The Dowdy Ferry Park is somewhere in between the two. All attract butterflies, hummingbird moths and bumblebees for the nectar.