Sunday, February 20, 2011

Water Baby Has A Gator Encounter In The Inner Tubing Area Of The Trinity River In Fort Worth


One of my undercover agents, who, for blogging purposes, will be referred to as Water Baby, was taking a stroll along the Trinity River last night, before sunset. As Water Baby walked, she and her walking companion were startled to see a large reptile moving stealthily down the Trinity River.

Moving stealthily in the same location in Trinity Park that J.D. Granger and his TRV crew hold their Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Due to the bad light provided by the setting sun, Water Baby's pictures aren't all that great. But you sure can clearly see something is moving in the river and leaving a wake behind it.

Below is another of Water Baby's pictures and below that I'll insert Water Baby's Full Gator in the Trinity Report.


Yesterday while I was walking on the trinity trail I spotted something peculiar swimming in the river.  I noticed it right away because the wake behind it was huge.  It was swimming in the middle of the river at a very slow pace and coming from under the university st. bridge toward the mini train station (by the zoo).  My first instinct told me it was a gator because of the way it was moving, like it was scoping the area for prey.  I  took a few pics and continued to watch just to see where it was going, it eventually stopped along the edge of the river bank over by the train station.  By this time it was out of sight so I continued my walk, looping around to the other side of the river and headed back home in the direction of the zoo (and the mysterious creature).  When I was nearing the train station area I walked over to the river bank area to look around and check to see if that thing was still in the water and I saw it in the shadows!!!  At this time I was very close and it still looked like a gator, so I was a little nervous.  I took a few more pics.  Because the sun was going down, my flash was on and I could tell it was bothering this thing.  It seemed to be looking at me from the side, then it swam around in a half circle to face me, as if it were sizing me up.  then it became too dark to take any more pics on my cell phone cam, so I just sat there staring at it.  It stood there looking at me for a while and then slowly started swimming back toward University upstream. There were two ducks swimming downstream so I thought maybe it was interested in the ducks, but as it approached them, they started flapping their wings and took off flying.  I watched it until it disappeared into the shadows of the river banks under the bridge.  My companion and I really thought it was a gator, let me know what you think.  One thing is for sure--JD Granger's TRV tubers better watch out, because if this was really a gator, their happy hour production could turn into Jaws, gator-style. 

3 comments:

  1. Y'think maybe it was a nutria? We've seen lots of nutria in the Trinity, and when they swim they leave a wake like that. We've even seen herds of Nutria grazing along the river below the Taylor St. roundabout.

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  2. Or an alligator gar. Trinity is home to them, some of them weighing up to 200 lbs. The tributaries are full of snakes, some of them bigger than you care to think about.

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  3. Hey, that's my 'hood. Considering a nine-and-a-half footer was caught, tagged and released in Lake Worth last summer, alligators are entirely possible here. They're here; they're just stealthy and usually feed at night. Just have some night tubing and this location can be featured in ChowBaby.

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