WILD FONTAINEBLEAU
The wild spaces of southeast Louisiana’s Fontainebleau State Park keep revealing their treasures to me, even after five-plus years of too many visits to count. It is in those spaces where I’ve started to recognize the layers of life that exist in the park’s diverse habitats. And it is in those spaces where my love of birds first took hold.
Two white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) cross under the live oaks and spanish moss as the sun sets in Fontainebleau State Park in Mandeville, Louisiana. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
Fontainebleau first hooked me, probably like most visitors, with its bigger, easy-to-spot wildlife – white-tailed deer, brown pelicans, great egrets, bald eagles, and, of course, alligators. The impossible beauty of the iconic live oak trees draped with Spanish moss and resurrection ferns didn’t escape me either.
But as I went back again and again, I started to notice the smaller things. Butterflies and bumblebees bounced along the flowering plants in spring and skinks shuffled through piles of leaves in fall. Voices of songbirds and chorus frogs became the soundtrack for meandering walks along the trails. And although I still haven’t spotted a chorus frog, I now have a deep connection to the birds of Fontainebleau, who easily have become my favorite photo subjects.
As for those famous moss-covered, live oaks, I’ve now spent a lot of time peering into them with the help of a telephoto lens and found a small but busy world that I never knew existed. In the tangle of moss and ferns lies a rich habitat where a seemingly endless array of birds and insects go about their days.
In the same vein, where I used to see only a broad-brush scene of woodlands and marshes, now I can see so much more. Tiny mushrooms pop out of bright-green moss. Native irises bring vibrant purple to an otherwise dark swamp. The tall dead trees that line Lake Pontchartrain’s shore and the marshes serve as perches for osprey, eagles, hawks and kingfishers as they hunt in the waters below. In the woodlands, the dead trees offer homes for woodpeckers – pileated, northern flickers, red-bellied, red-headed and yellow-bellied sapsuckers.
The wild spaces of Fontainebleau have helped me grow my skills as a nature photographer but, more importantly, have encouraged me to be a voice for the birds and wildlife relying on such protected lands. The wild spaces also have provided me with a place just to be quiet in nature and restore as a person.
Made in love and gratitude is this collection of photographs.
A male summer tanager (Piranga rubra) feeds on an insect on a late spring day at Fontainebleau State Park. © 2020 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A great egret (Ardea alba) preens in the fall-colored leaves of a bald cypress tree at Fontainebleau State Park. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
The aptly named Alligator Marsh is home to american alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) like this full-grown adult, who was swimming near the boardwalk. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
In southeast Louisiana for their breeding season, two least bitterns (Ixobrychus exilis) cling to reeds off of the Alligator Marsh trail boardwalk at Fontainebleau State Park in late March. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
White pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) scoop up small fish, crawfish and other food in Alligator Marsh at Fontainebleau State Park. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo
Spanish moss hangs from the trees that line Lake Pontchartrain’s north shore at Fontainebleau. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
Seen through autumn-colored cypress trees and spanish moss, a male belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) hunts for fish in Lake Pontchartrain from a dead tree at the water's edge in Fontainebleau State Park. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A woman watches a winter sunset over Lake Pontchartrain from Fontainebleau State Park's pier. © 2017 Elizabeth Acevedo.
After perching on a favorite dead tree, or snag, a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) takes flight toward the marsh at Fontainebleau. © 2020 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A white-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus) spends a winter morning in moss-covered oaks at Fontainebleau. © 2021 Elizabeth Acevedo.
In late August, a prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea) lingers at Fontainebleau State Park before beginning its fall migration south. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A wintering blue-headed vireo (Vireo solitarius) sings alongside a Fontainebleau hiking trail. © 2020 Elizabeth Acevedo.
Late afternoon light falls on a sora (Porzana Carolina) feeding in the flooded grasses at Fontainebleau. © 2021 Elizabeth Acevedo.
Fontainebleau’s beach on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain is usually a perfect spot to watch the sunset. On this evening though, pungent marsh grasses had washed ashore and signs posted along the beach warned of blue-green algae bloom present in the lake after the Army Corp of Engineers diverted fresh water from the Mississippi River into the brackish lake to avoid flooding. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A greater yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) lingers on Fontainebleau’s beach on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain with a least sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) strolling nearby,. © 2020 Elizabeth Acevedo.
Three river otters (Lontra canadensis) take a short break after diving for blue crabs in Lake Pontchartrain at Fontainebleau’s beach. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A ruby crowned kinglet (Regulus calendula) perches among late autumn leaves of a bald cypress tree at Fontainebleau. © 2015 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) settles on a dead tree to eat a tiny fish that it expertly plucked out of Lake Pontchartrain at Fontainebleau State Park. The city of Mandeville's historic lakefront area is visible in the background. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) eats a seed after cracking through the nutshell. The tufted titmouse is a year-round resident in southern Louisiana, pictured here in Fontainebleau State Park. © 2020 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) floats on a sunny winter day along Lake Pontchartrain's shore at Fontainebleau. © 2017 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A young male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) pauses on a hiking trail at Fontainebleau. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A wintering female yellow-rumped warbler (Myrtle) (Setophaga coronata) perches among new leaves of a cypress tree and spanish moss at Fontainebleau State Park in Mandeville, Louisiana. © 2020 Elizabeth Acevedo.
Lit by a late winter sunset, a young american alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), approximately three to four feet in length, swims in a small pond near Fontainebleau's beach. © 2018 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A sora (Porzana Carolina) steps across floating marsh plants alongside Fontainebleau State Park’s boardwalk that winds out over a large marsh bordered by Lake Pontchartrain. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A river otter (Lontra canadensis) rests on marsh plants while biting into a freshly caught fish near Fontainebleau’s boardwalk off of Alligator Marsh trail. © 2019 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) takes cover in the foliage at Fontainebleau State Park after a February rain shower at its wintering ground in southeast Louisiana. © 2020 Elizabeth Acevedo.
It isn’t just native wildlife who love Fontainebleau. Two female wild pigs (Sus scrofa), an invasive species, wait for the last of their piglets to cross a swampy creek before continuing through the park. © 2018 Elizabeth Acevedo.
The Fontainebleau bathhouse is lit against the twilight sky on a winter evening. © 2017 Elizabeth Acevedo.
A rare scene, snow falls at Fontainebleau State Park's beach on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, with cypress trees still in their richest autumn colors. © 2017 Elizabeth Acevedo.
The setting sun streams fiery orange light through the spanish moss and trees at Fontainebleau State Park. © 2020 Elizabeth Acevedo.
All images are copyrighted © 2015-2021 Elizabeth Acevedo. All rights reserved.
For image licensing or other business inquiries, contact me at elizabeth@elizabethacevedophotography.com