Boyd Hill Nature Preserve

Discover the flora and fauna of five unique ecosystems in this St. Pete park that's also on the Great Florida Birding Trail. It's the perfect spot when the weather is ideal for walking trails and spying on wildlife.

Boyd Hill Nature Preserve stretches for 245 acres along Lake Maggiore on the southern half of St. Petersburg. It holds more than three miles of trails and boardwalks that bring you through a variety of environments including pine flatwoods, willow marsh and lake shore. And one of the glories of Boyd Hill is access. Scant minutes south of downtown, you can reach it with ease from anywhere in the city. Yet, a minute or two along the trails and you feel miles away from everything.

It starts at the Lake Maggiore Environmental Education Center, where exhibits preview the environments you'll soon visit. And when we exited the building and headed for the trails as if on cue – a long-legged great white heron strode across our path, seeming to say, "you're in our territory now."

Before you enter that territory, however, there's a small aviary just inside the entrance to the park. It's home to a small group of permanently injured birds of prey, those that either cannot fly or must be protected. First in line is a bald eagle.

My kids Sam and Julia spotted a bald eagle once before, in the wild. On a boating trip up the St. Johns River we cruised slowly along, under its watchful eye from a perch in the highest tree on the waterfront. It looked so regal; it felt as if we've been given unspoken permission to continue on our way. A spectacular moment.

But this allowed us a view from six feet away. A brief conversation with the attendant there gave us a quick back history: An encounter with a rattlesnake had left the eagle unable to fly. She was four years old at the time, has lived at Sunken Gardens for 12 years and has been at Boyd Hill since 2001. A full life in captivity can last 75 years. She again projected a stately calm, but the benefit of the up-close look is the appreciation you get of the power of the bird, held in reserve.

On this day, it clearly was going to be all about the animals that we'd see. For on the stroll between the Swamp Woodlands Boardwalk and the Willow Marsh Boardwalk, Sam spotted a small raccoon emerging from a path-side gulley. As we froze to watch its progress, a second, and then a third raccoon came out from the same spot. A glance in the direction they were headed provided us a view of the mother raccoon, awaiting her trio's return to the shelter of some piled-up pine and palm branches. She eyed us warily as the three smaller raccoons single-filed on home.

The trails are the key to the different ecosystems Boyd Hill has to offer, with the Sand Scrub Trail and the Pine Flatwoods Trail – both a little further from Lake Maggiore – representing the drier offerings. Sam and Julia's favorites were the Boardwalks (Swamp Woodlands and Willow Marsh) for their denser, shadier, and swamp-ier feel. The boardwalk gives you a feel of having your own highway through the muck, and the kids spent every step analyzing the nooks and shadows for alligators. They're out there, but their search revealed mostly lizards and tiny fish on this day.

My favorite view came on the bridge that begins the Willow Marsh Boardwalk. Beyond the branches and bushes, a lone brown pelican waded the shallows of Lake Maggiore, while the broad expanse of the water revealed downtown buildings and Tropicana Field in the distance. It was another brief reminder that this quiet, remote escape is just a short drive from civilization.