Pontederia cordata, or pickerel
weed, is a common plant of many
of the wetlands.

EMERALDA MARSH CONSERVATION AREA

Lisbon, Florida

    In January 2000, I began conducting weekly bird censuses at  Emeralda Marsh Conservation Area in Lake County, Florida, for the St. Johns River Water Management District.   I'm now in my sixth year of that project.  The pages below were written at various times since then, and contain a variety of information that may be useful to those contemplating a visit. 

 Tricolored Herons are one of the
common wading birds at Emeralda.

EMERALDA JOURNAL

The pages below were written throughout 2000
and chronicle some of my observations
during my first year at Emeralda. 
Some of these speculations and "insights"
 have turned out in retrospect to be
somewhat off-base, so read it with a healthy dose
of skepticism.

1.  A year in the wetlands
2.   Dicky birds
3.   Sushi lovers
4.   Enough with the birds already...
5.   More birds
6.   Spring!!! 
7.   Breeding birds
8.   Spring into summer
9.   Shorebirds (and some miscellany)
10.  Summer birds
11.  Death and life in an Emeralda summer
12.  Summer doldrums
13.  Summer waders
14.  Summer ends
15.  Fall migrants!
16. Changes
17. Mycteria madness
18. Winter residents
19. Winter warblers
20. Mobbing behavior
21.  MIxed messages
22. Winter ducks and waders
23. Parting shots

BIRDING RESOURCES

    Where to go, how to get there, what to expect,
and some miscellaneous photographs.

Photos from Spring - Fall 2005

Photos from Summer 2004- Winter 2005

BIRDING EMERALDA - Where to go

Checklist

About the photography:  All photographs on these pages are ©Peter May, and may not be downloaded or otherwise used for other than personal use without my permission.  All photographs on this site were taken at Emeralda Marsh using either Fujichrome Velvia or Provia F100, and were digitized with a Nikon Coolscan  film scanner.   For more information on obtaining permission for use of these photographs for other than personal or "fair use" purposes, contact me at pmay@stetson.edu or see my Stock Photography page.