Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve....

A Mocama Chieftain village-click

...Jacksonville, Florida, groups of peoples who lived here 2500 years BC,
all un-earthed in a few big digs, they found things for us to see;
there may have been 25 villages, all with a different Chief,
what happened to them remains unknown, history silent as a thief.

These were civilized people, able to live in a group,
they kept animals on farms, and chickens in a coop;
they were gone already when explorers came,
but what archaeologists have found did much to explain.

Kingsley Plantation, came a little later, a lot later really-click

Spoonbills and Pelicans-click

Shoreline of the villages

Big Cypress National Preserve...

Egrets nesting

...Florida, a large part of the Everglades system,
supports wildlife and filters water, and we almost missed 'em;
not pretty to look at, at least to my eyes,
but it has an important task, and very large size.

Home to the last Florida Panther, and Key Deer,
all sorts or birds, turtles and alligators are here,
I would want to go for a walk in this place,
I'd go so fast it would be like a race.

An example of the trees

Florida Panther, click to enlarge