He counted a love of nature among his many interests, which included Weedon Island's environment. Near the trail entrance is a model of a kitchen midden. The original, left by Timucuan Indians, was 10 feet high and 100 feet long. It was flattened in 1930 when an airport control tower was built. Nearby is the foundation of a building that housed the airport's office, ticket counter and waiting room.
Black crabs creep along mangrove roots.
Unseen insects hum, doubtless prey of the spiders whose webs, some up to 8 feet wide, spread across the trees and sometimes onto the walks. The spiders, their orange bodies speckled white, look lean and aggressive with jointed, needle-like black and yellow legs. Some are about 4 inches long. Resembling golden silk spiders shown in the spider chapters of nature books, they lay in their wispy nests all along a section of boardwalk that ends at a platform on Tampa Bay's edge. Fifty yards away, two dozen birds wade in shallow water.