Images

Great Blue Heron at Snowden Pond, Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel, MD. Patuxent Research Refuge is the only National Wildlife Refuge established explicitly for research purposes, and is home to both USFWS and USGS programs, including the Bird Banding Lab.

Think habitat: not grass. Powerlines that run through the Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge, near Laurel, MD are managed as shrub habitat instead of mowed, which provides stopover habitat for migratory birds.

A not so common Zebra Swallowtail nectaring on the the Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, MD

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) forms extensive meadows in low intertidal and shallow subtidal areas of estuaries and embayments along the Northwest Atlantic coast. Eelgrass meadows are noted as critical habitat for many recreational and commercial fish species as well as small forage fish.

This is a larval American Bullfrog, a large species of frog found throughout the eastern US. The larvae of this species can be identified by their large size and small black spots on the tail fin.

A Red-tailed Hawk pursued by Common Grackles and an Eastern Kingbird along the Williamsport Breeding Bird Survey route

USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center (formerly Leetown Science Center) National Fish Health Laboratory, Kearneysville, WV

A flock of Blue-winged teal at Uhler Marsh at the Eastern Ecological Science Center on the Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, MD.  

A photo of an adult spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum). Spotted salamanders are found throughout the northeast US, where they spend most of their lives underground. They emerge in the late winter and early spring to breed and lay eggs in vernal pools.

Mycobacteriosis is a bacterial disease that can affect many species of fish around the world.  We are studying the impacts of mycobacteriosis among northern snakehead from the Potomac River to better understand this disease in the species and the potential impacts to other aquatic animals.

Sunny day after a heavy wet snow storm. Snow is clinging to all the branches on the apple trees orchard as well as the maple trees at the EESC-USGS-Conte Fish Research Lab in Turners Falls, MA

Main building at the EESC-USGS- Conte Fish Research Lab in Turners Falls MA.  Snow was clinging to the Blueberry bushes all along the front of the building as well as to all the branches of the maples trees in the distance.

USGS Experimental Stream Laboratory (ESL) in Kearneysville WV. This laboratory consists of 4 recirculating streams with pool and riffle habitat features. ESL research investigates fish population and community ecology to support conservation and restoration planning by state, federal, and NGO partners.

A Fox Sparrow wintering at the Patuxent Research Refuge at the Eastern Ecological Science Center.

A Fox Sparrow wintering at the Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel, Maryland, USA. 

Shows the approximate home range of box turtle #218 based on the centroid of transmitter points for 2017-2018

 

Bald Eagles flying over the Patuxent River                       

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on a cold winter day taken in Owings, Maryland, USA

A male lesser scaup at the USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center in Maryland. This bird was not part of this new research. Photograph taken in 2017. Credit: Jeffrey Sullivan, USGS. 

A male White-tailed Deer at Eastern Ecological Science Center located on the Patuxent Research Refuge.

Scientists record whether a surf scoter duck pecks at a target after tones are played at certain frequencies. This is part of a study by the USGS and partners to identify the frequencies at which sea ducks can hear underwater.