Images

Once thought to be extinct, the Pacific pocket mouse (Perognathus longimembris pacificus) was rediscovered in 1993 and is currently found at three population sites along the southern California coast.

Julia Smith holds a captive rail fitted with a transmitter "backpack" before release into Tijuana Estuary.

Close up of light-footed Ridgway's rail.

The light-footed Ridgway’s rail, a handsome but secretive waterbird that lives on tidal marshland fragments in southern California from Santa Barbara County south to Baja California, Mexico.

USGS is gathering and analyzing DNA from blood samples throughout the subspecies’ range to document the light-footed Ridgway’s rail’s genetic health.

A wild rail approaches a speaker playing mating calls at San Elijo lagoon. The light-footed Ridgway’s rail is a handsome but secretive waterbird that lives on tidal marshland fragments in southern California from Santa Barbara County south to Baja California, Mexico.

Zoomed image of a Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus) breaking the surface.

Zoomed aerial image of a Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) taking off from the water.

Zoomed image of small terns in flight.

Zoomed image of a group of adult and immature Western Gulls (Larus occidentalis).

Zoomed image of a Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and a group of shearwaters feeding in southern California.

Zoomed image of a Cuvier’s Beaked Whale (Ziphius cavirostris) below the surface.

Zoomed image of a Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) below the surface, with contrast increased for clarity.

Incense cedar in the Sierra Nevada

Zoomed in aerial photo of a sunfish (Mola mola).

Brown pelicans viewed from a plane.

Marine layer rolling in over the Santa Ynez mountains near Santa Barbara. En route to begin a seabird and marine mammal aerial survey off Central California.

Marine layer rolling in over the Santa Ynez mountains near Santa Barbara.  En route to begin a seabird and marine mammal aerial survey off Central California.

Marine layer rolling in over the Santa Ynez mountains near Santa Barbara.  En route to begin a seabird and marine mammal aerial survey off Central California.

Oil on the surface of water in the Southern CA Bight. Offshore seeps in Southern California add about 5 million gallons of oil to the ocean annually, with wide interannual variation (National Academy of Sciences, 2003).

 Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus) breaking the surface.

Research scientist Lesley DeFalco works on native and invasive annual plant sampling at the site of the Tramp Fire,one of 12 fires for which the USGS and the BLM are implementing landscape scale restoration treatments.