As the pre-dawn light was slowly whisked away by the rising sun, the sounds of the forest began to rise up: the chorus of crickets, the cacophony of storks and ibises, the shrieks of ospreys and the chatter of woodpeckers. Photos can do justice to the range of light, but never to the diversity of sounds.
Everglades National Parks
FL USA
My whistlestop tour of the my 24th National Park, the Everglades, consisted of nothing more than taking an airboat tour of the vast swamplands that form the primary terrain of the Everglades. I remember the boat gliding over marshes and open water, catching glimpses of tree snakes and walking with jacanas, checking out the ospreys fishing, and soaking in the humid atmosphere of these pristine wetlands. Nevertheless, these were just the teaser to the largest subtropical wilderness of the country.
Being so close to the population centers of Florida, the Everglades ecosystem experiences multiple stresses: from human intervention to control to the flow of water, air and water pollution, the lowering of the fresh water table, and last but not the least, the rising sea levels from the global climate change. It remains to be seen how much impact these factors have had already, and how much more the region's ecosystem can take
Everglades National Park
FL USA
