Images

USGS field scientist uses radio telemetry to search for skunks and raccoons tagged with lightweight radio collars. USGS is monitoring skunk and raccoon movements across California's inland marshes to understand how they are using different features of the landscape, like levee roads, to navigate to waterfowl nests.

USGS ecologist Scarlett Howell holds an endangered Least Bell's Vireo in Baja California, Mexico.

Raccoon with a transmitter sits by the edge of the water in Suisun Marsh.

Photo of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service environmental education specialist Genie Moore with a student. The USGS Western Ecological Research Center and USFWS collaborated to host an outreach event at a California elementary school.

Photo of two students painting a lifelike Caspian tern decoy. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey visited an elementary school to teach students about their scientific studies on waterbirds in the South San Francisco Bay.

Photo of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intern showing elementary students how to paint a Caspian tern decoy. Scientists from the USFWS and USGS Western Ecological Research Center are using these decoys to draw Caspian terns to restored habitat in the South San Francisco Bay.

Elevation surveys as part of an effort to provide downscaled climate response models to managers, Bandon National Wildlife Refuge, Bandon Oregon. Photo credit: Katherine Powelson/USGS (former employee).

Red-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda) flying.

White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) flying.

Red-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda) and chick.

Three of the nine wild sea otter populations in the U.S. are federally listed as threatened. In California, USGS biologists have lead an annual population census to assess the local populations' recovery, working closely with state agencies and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Kevin Lafferty encounters a curious endangered black sea bass during field work. Taken at Channel Islands National Park.

USGS WERC scientist Emily (Emma) Kelsey and Cassin's Auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) chick.

Photo of a skunk with an ear tag ID. Scientists from the USGS Western Ecological Research Center are studying the movements of skunks and raccoons within Suisun Marsh, CA to understand how they navigate the marsh to reach waterfowl nests. Results will inform the management of waterfowl populations within the Central Valley, CA.

Scientists with the USGS Western Ecological Research Center examine a young skunk caught in Suisun Marsh, CA. The USGS is studying the movement patterns of skunks and raccoons in Suisun Marsh, CA to learn how they use different landscape features, like levee roads, to navigate to waterfowl nests.

USGS scientist takes the measurements of a young, blindfolded skunk in Suisun Marsh, CA. The USGS is studying the movement patterns of skunks and raccoons in Suisun Marsh, CA to learn how they use different landscape features, like levee roads, to navigate to waterfowl nests.

Hen in Suisun Marsh, CA.

Picture of a White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) flying.

Photo of a Red-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda) in flight.

Gadwall ducklings in nest, Suisun Marsh, CA. 

Caspian terns (Hydroprogne caspia) on Island 11 in Pond A16, Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, California. USGS biologists, at the request of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, used lifelike models of Caspian terns to attract these waterbirds to newly-constructed habitat in the Bay.