NPS Photo by Sarah Zenner
A great blue heron and an alligator.
Jordan, 4th Grade
Palmetto Elementary
On October 28, 2008 I went on a field trip to Everglades National Park. I was amazed by the wilderness of this place. It is a wonderful ecosystem with all these different organisms like alligators, turtles, and birds. The Everglades is special because it is a wetland. For the ecosystem to survive it needs water. The water comes from rivers and the rain season that starts in May through October. Shark Valley is a grassland and wetland but does not have sharks. Its water flows into Shark River where you might find sharks. Limestone is a rock that you can find if you dig one foot underground. This special rock absorbs and sucks up the water in the ground.
Everglades National Park is unique because of the many astonishing animals, trees, and plants. The trees in the Everglades are palms and temperate trees like oak form a hardwood hammock. It helps to hold water and to prevent fires. Some trees at the hammock have special names such as gumbo limbo, lysiloma, strangler figs, and sabal palm. There is the sawgrass area where most animals live.
Many special animals live at the Everglades including alligators, turtles, birds, apple snails, and snail kites. The Florida panther and the white tailed deer live in the Everglades. They are surrounded by water so they make the hardwood hammock their place of shelter and protection.
There are so many colorful birds. What I liked most was the great blue heron. It is a wading bird. It has a blue-gray color. It is the largest North American heron and it has wingspan of seventy inches! It has a sharp beak which helps it catch fish and other prey. I was able to see around seven great blue herons during our field trip to the Everglades. The great blue heron is a carnivore feeding on fish, shellfish, insects, rodents, amphibians, reptiles and sometimes small birds. Great blue herons control fish and insect populations in Everglades National Park. They are also an important source of food for the animals that prey on them.
Our field trip to Everglades National Park was an extraordinary adventure. I learned so much about an unusual and unique ecosystem that is full of wildlife. I enjoyed watching the animals such as alligators in their natural habitat. I also learned the importance of preserving this unique place that sustains the life of all the animals and plants that exist at Everglades National Park. I hope to visit this park very soon with the rest of my family and I will try to explain and explore with them the marvels of life within Everglades National Park.
