The 21^st Century Magazine,
at South Florida's www.miami-dade-online.com.

The ground is sand and it is amazing to see the diversity of plant life that can grow in such seemingly poor soil. You see small patches of green ground covers to large shrubs, grasses of different sizes and varieties to occasional trees covering the landscape.

And of course, as this picture shows, there are Saw Palmetto palms and pine trees. This is very much what it looked like, before the Boat People came in search of the Fountain of Youth. You remember the story about Ponce de Leon's quest for the elixir of eternal youthfulness. I have often wondered why they thought it was in Florida, and why St Augustine.

In the foreground is a flowering ground cover, standing knee high. In the background are the tall Slash Pines.

At Christmas, we buy three baby Slash Pines and put them all together as one "Christmas Tree". Then we plant them in our yard. Recycling at its best. They are wonderful trees, native to Florida, providing food and shelter to all sorts of wildlife.

This picture shows the pine cones nestled within the branches and long needles. Inside the cone are little pockets, each holding a seed, and a new potential tree...or squirrel food.

This bird-in-hand is related to the more common Blue Jay. It is called a Scrub Jay from the area in which he lives. It is surprising that this protected bird living in the wilderness would be so tame, as there are few people who venture into its territory. But it and others had metal leg rings, indicating they have probably been released into the wild. And, based upon the jay's reaction to being offered a peanut, it is likely they were hand fed at some time in their life.

The bird would take the first peanut and put it way back in his throat. The second and third peanuts he held in his beak. The problem came in trying to get the fourth nut. Of course, the third would roll on out as he greedily attempted getting that one more peanut. Finally, he decided three was sufficient and he flew off to land on a low shrub, still holding the three nuts.

From his perch, he surveyed the ground, picking a good spot to dig a small hole where he buried the peanuts. Then he flew back for the others being held out for him. In this picture he has just taken off with another beak-full of treasured nuts.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A reader has admonished us concerning the feeding of wild birds. The concern is the birds become dependent upon human sources of foods. We asked Peter what he thought. Because it is so desolate, without human traffic and because the birds appeared to have already been hand-fed in a breeding program we believe there is no problem. While we applaud the concerns of our reader, none of us have ever seen a wild bird take food from anyone's hand.

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