The Drying Beds
of Arlington

Village Creek Drying Beds
in Arlington

First Visit Review

The Village Creek Drying Beds is a wastewater-treatment plant hidden in Arlington, TX. Don’t be swayed by the name though, this is a birding hotspot and a very clean and beautiful nature trail. Whatever your nature mission, birds, plants, insects, landscape this is a secluded and serene trail that will not disappoint. 

Birding in The Drying Beds in Arlington

Amira’s Review

Today we decided to hop over to Arlington and check out the Village Creek drying beds. Paul found this location and read it was a hotspot for bird activity. Spring weather in Texas is up and down and the past couple weeks it has been down. Super cloudy and rainy and we haven’t been able to hike like we want to.

This place was ranked in the top 5 for birdwatching per google and I liked that it was kind of like a hidden trail. Made it they much more mysterious…haha as we crossed the intersection on foot I told Paul I was a little nervous…yup I’m a dork.

The day was already hot and humid at 8am but occasionally a breeze would roll though providing relief. The walkway into the trials had bird sounds all around but no sightings on the way in.

One thing I would like to add that I observed today is that fellow nature photographers are the coolest and nicest people around. Each time we go out we see all kinds of people with their own photography agendas taking pictures and traveling the trials right along with us. Never have I encountered anything but friendly chatter with my fellow nature lovers!

We decided to start on a path to the right once we got past the gates. The brush was high but there was a small trail through it. To the left of was a pond visible from the trail, but unfortunately with no way to get to the waters edge. We walked for a bit and something caught my eye. I zoomed in with the camera on the water and captured a White-faced Ibis.

These beautiful birds live near swamps or marshes and probe their long bills for food eating worms and insects. Interesting fact about the Ibis-these birds will in incorporate human-made objects they’ve found, including cigarette lighters, empty shotgun shells, plastic dolls, and hair combs.

Further on we go the trail varies from high brush to walkable flat trails. I keep catching small sights of a woodpecker, cardinal and the indigo bunting hopping around. We come to a clearing and just stand for a few minutes, taking it all in and enjoying the trail. Out pops the indigo bunting!

Once I did my research on these birds I feel lucky to have seen one drying the day. Indigo Buntings are nocturnal migrants and use the stars, setting sun location, and other landmarks to navigate. They learn to orient by the night sky as a young bird observing the stars. Pretty cool!!

The Drying Beds in Arlington

Paul’s Review

Here we go…
“Googling – Top Place to Bird in North Texas” The Drying Beds in Arlington are consistently listed as the top location. Yes, it is early May and the heat is here and rain fall from the previous day has the humidity soaring, but let the adventure begin.

There were so many things to consider when going into the Drying Beds and hard knowing where to start. I am going to treat this blog as more informational than anything, but hopefully it helps others that are heading out here for their first time.

I have added the satellite view of our hike as well as a screenshot of the parking to hopefully add some visual content and aid.

Village Creek Drying Beds: Parking

There is a lot of information on how to get to the location, but a few more details here I would have found helpful.

Using North Fielder Rd and NW Green Oaks Blvd as your reference point, if you’re turning right (to the east) off of Fielder on to Green Oaks you will see a small ball field and park on your right called JW Dunlop Sports Center, the entrance to the Drying Beds is directly to your left, “if” the gates are open, I suggest driving down to the end of the entrance, very limited parking, but you might as well drive down and check availability. If there is no room, parked directly across the street at get ready to walk in.

For us, we didn’t realize there was parking available, but when we return, we will still park across the street. The walk in and out gives you many opportunities for seeing birds that you may have otherwise have missed. (The walkout is where we came across one of our favorite shots of the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron)

Village Creek Drying Beds: Navigating Your Hike

My same thoughts apply on decisions around how you’re going to hike and navigate this location, there’s just not a ton of information out there.

You can see by our satellite view of our hike, we decided to walk in and make a hard right turn, just seemed like the logical choice to start taking in all the Drying Beds had to offer. This decision took us on a straight quarter of a mile walk across the damn wall, the scenery was visually spectacular and lends to great views, but for us using the Nikon CoolPix 1000, every desired shot is at a distance, that seemed to just be a little out of reach for spectacular shots.

If, I would’ve had a little bit more information I think I would’ve bypassed the damn and started more of a zigzag approach across the back side of the drying beds. As a point of reference, and a little bit funny, you can see our journey was an exact rectangle around the main beds. It truly is only a suggestion, but the quarter of a mile straight hike with limited photography capabilities, limited our time and capabilities for closer encounters.

Now, we only planned for 2.5 hours out here, we knew with the heat and humidity we wanted to get in early and leave before it got ridiculous. So, some of these suggestions you can ignore if you’re planning on an all day experience or the summer heat doesn’t bother you… We know come this fall, we will be back with better plans and cooler weather.

I’ll end with the fact this place is absolutely amazing and by far the best place we have visited in North Texas thus far. Everything about this place just connects you with nature, makes you wonder why other municipalities don’t take this same approach to water treatment and restores a small amount of faith that we can coexist with Mother Nature in a way she just might approve of….