The Supermoon as it rises through the thick humid air of a Texas June night Around once a year the Moon is a whisker closer to Earth than the the other lunar cycles, setting up for what some advertise as a bigger and brighter Moon. Coinciding in 2013 within a day of the Summer Solstice …
Continue reading “Supermoon Over Dallas — Tracking the Moonrise”
Patient coyotes of the Great Trinity Forest on a quiet and methodical stalk of their prey through the undisturbed wetlands of Dallas In the early part of the last century George Dorsey(1868–1931) from the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC recorded a collection of Caddo mythology stories. At that time the Caddo had long since been …
Continue reading “Hunting The Wetlands and Sloughs of the Trinity with the Swamp Coyotes”
Thousands of bloated and decaying fish at West Pond in the Great Trinity Forest, Joppa Preserve, June 8, 2013 There was an old man from the Freedman’s town of Joppa named Bad Leg Fred who once ran a private fishing concession here in the 70s and 80s. For a buck or two, he’d let you …
Continue reading “Massive Fish Kill In Great Trinity Forest — Joppa Preserve”
Acres of marsh loving Clasping Coneflower (Rudbeckia amplexicaulis) as far as the eye can see in the Back Forty below Big Spring in the Great Trinity Forest; Dallas, Texas Across a flooded slough from Big Spring in the Great Trinity Forest sits the largest wildflower meadow inside the city limits. Horizon to horizon, millions and …
Cycling hero Michael McNair on his first bike ride back into the Great Trinity Forest, near Freedman’s Town of Joppa, Dallas, Texas April 28, 2013 The face of courage, victory and overcoming impossible odds. If there was one cool picture that I find remarkable more than any other I have taken on the Trinity River, …
The pure crystal clear aquifer water of Historic Big Spring as it freely flows in Dallas, Texas Well, is it time to start worrying about the fate of Big Spring and the land around it? It’s looking that way. So rare is it to find a place like this in Dallas. A perfect balance of …
Climbing high in the tree tops of a century old Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) stand, Dogwood Canyon, Dallas County, Texas Master Naturalist Bill Holston climbing a ladder into the Dogwoods It sits three canyons, four creek crossings, two saddles, five hills and one pocket canyon away from the start of the hike. The refugium of …
Continue reading “Dogwood Canyon and Cedar Ridge Preserve — Hiking Into The Refugium”
The haunting rhythmic monkey like cries of the woods announce one thing, you are in Barred Owl country. The cool evening air of the Texas spring woods is often punctuated with these haunting hoots one of the most vocal of all native birds in the State of Texas. Heard at a distance but rarely seen …
Adult male Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus; initiating a high speed 100+ mph hunting dive into the John Bunker Sands Wetlands Want to see some Bald Eagles? Read on. It all began began with the premise of turning a cattle pasture into a wetland. The periodic floods of the Trinity combined with pancake flat landscape created …
Continue reading “John Bunker Sands Wetland Center On The Trinity River”
Turkey Vulture leaving pre-dawn roost at Post Oak Preserve Awaiting the sunrise at Post Oak Preserve’s lake It’s the last weekend of a Texas winter. In these parts we call it Windter. An extraordinary breezy time of year punctuated by the last throws of Arctic cold blue northers and strong southerly warm breezes off the …
The Trinity River Buckeye Grove bathed in sunset overlooking the Trinity River, Dallas, Texas March 2013 One of the largest native flowering trees in Texas, the Texas Buckeye Tree Aesculus glabra var. arguta makes for one of the earliest and best shows of color in the state. The Great Trinity Forest holds prime examples of …
Continue reading “Texas Buckeye Trail – The Annual Buckeye Grove Tour”
Trout Lily (Erythronium albidum) pollinated by bee, Gateway Park, Great Trinity Forest in Dallas, Texas The metamorphosis of the winter woods to that of spring begins on the smallest of scale. For a very short period of time every year, a blink of an eye, the old patchwork of a now forgotten and paved over …
