If we could go back and walk through southwest Arlington before it was a city, we would have found oak woodlands with small prairie openings and a few scattered ponds. That is what is preserved within Sheri Capehart Nature Preserve: 59 acres of Eastern Cross Timbers woods.
It is an oasis for birds, including northern cardinals, Carolina chickadees and two species of wrens. Near the ponds you might find a great egret, a great blue heron or green heron, and perhaps ducks such as mallards paddling on the water. Those ponds also are breeding places for a great variety of dragonflies.
The preserve is a wonderful place for taking a quiet walk, birdwatching and studying all the other animals – mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, as well as insects and spiders. The citizen science app iNaturalist has 1,746 species of plants and animals documented in the preserve so far. You can write or draw in a nature journal or get in the desired number of steps in your fitness plan.
Catch-and-release fishing is allowed on the ponds, and people catch such species as sunfish and catfish. There are a couple of places where you can deposit broken or used fishing tackle, and we really appreciate anglers who try to take everything with them when they are done.
Most of the trails are small dirt paths leading across the prairie or through the woods. The beautiful thing is that they don’t distract from the natural appearance of the habitat. Such trails cause the least disturbance to this small place, and they are maintained in order to minimize erosion. Please avoid taking shortcuts or blazing your own trail, because these extra trails often trample plants and make it easier for rain to wash the soil away. When lots of trails crisscross an area, wildlife have fewer places for shelter and become more stressed.
Reptiles & Amphibians
From the summer of 2020 through the summer of 2022, we surveyed the reptiles and amphibians (“herps”) of the preserve, led by Michael Smith with the assistance of several Master Naturalist volunteers. We have continued to add significant sightings since that time. We gathered approximately 132 observations of frogs, toads, turtles, lizards, and snakes during that time, showing that several species were common and others either harder to spot or uncommon. We also reviewed verified sightings on iNaturalist outside of our team. A summary can be downloaded below as the “Sheri Capehart Nature Preserve Checklist of Reptiles and Amphibians.” We will update the checklist when new species are seen or their status changes.
