A Perfect Yellow Phase Brown Pelican Head Throw with Distant Ocean in Background, bending over backwards, stretching its neck and gular pouch. Note the winter breeding plumage except with bright yellow throat instead of the more typical red, yellow head, pink skin around the eye, brown hind neck with some white neck side detail, gray breast and body.
Species: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 40809
The Second Wave at Sunset, Vermillion Cliffs. The Second Wave, a curiously-shaped sandstone swirl, takes on rich warm tones and dramatic shadowed textures at sunset. Set in the North Coyote Buttes of Arizona and Utah, the Second Wave is characterized by striations revealing layers of sedimentary deposits, a visible historical record depicting eons of submarine geology.
Location: North Coyote Buttes, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona
Image ID: 28619
Aerial photo of the San Rafael Reef at dawn. A fold in the Earth's crust leads to this inclined section of the San Rafael Reef, at the eastern edge of the San Rafael Swell. Clearly seen are the characteristic triangular flatiron erosion patterns that typical this formation. The colors seen here arise primarily from Navajo and Wingate sandstone.
Location: Utah
Image ID: 39787
Narcissis the Ocean Sunfish was So Handsome He Fell in Love with his Own Reflection, in the Open Ocean near San Diego.
Species: Ocean sunfish, Mola mola
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 39460
Adult male humpback whale singing, suspended motionless underwater. Only male humpbacks have been observed singing. All humpbacks in the North Pacific sing the same whale song each year, and the song changes slightly from one year to the next.
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Maui, Hawaii
Image ID: 02796
Brown pelican flying while entangled in plastic bag wrapped around its neck. I believe the pelican probably became entangled in the bag by mistaking the floating plastic for food and diving on it, spearing it in such a way that the bag has lodged around the pelican's neck.
Species: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus, Pelecanus occidentalis
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 40093
Los Islotes, famous for its friendly colony of California sea lions, part of Archipelago Espiritu Santo, Sea of Cortez, Aerial Photo.
Location: Baja California, Mexico
Image ID: 32397
San Diego Bay and Skyline, viewed from Point Loma, Mount San Miguel rising in the distance, panoramic photograph.
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 30203
Panorama dimensions: 4665 x 25269
A brown pelican preening, reaching with its beak to the uropygial gland (preen gland) near the base of its tail. Preen oil from the uropygial gland is spread by the pelican's beak and back of its head to all other feathers on the pelican, helping to keep them water resistant and dry. Adult winter non-breeding plumage.
Species: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 30326
Torrey Pines seacliffs, rising up to 300 feet above the ocean, stretch from Del Mar to La Jolla. On the mesa atop the bluffs are found Torrey pine trees, one of the rare species of pines in the world.
Location: Torrey Pines State Reserve, San Diego, California
Image ID: 22285
San Diego Coronado Bridge, known locally as the Coronado Bridge, links San Diego with Coronado, California. The bridge was completed in 1969 and was a toll bridge until 2002. It is 2.1 miles long and reaches a height of 200 feet above San Diego Bay. Coronado Island is to the left, and downtown San Diego is to the right in this view looking north.
Location: San Diego, California
Image ID: 22288
Bryozoan grows on a red gorgonian on rocky reef, below kelp forest, underwater. The red gorgonian is a filter-feeding temperate colonial species that lives on the rocky bottom at depths between 50 to 200 feet deep. Gorgonians are oriented at right angles to prevailing water currents to capture plankton drifting by.
Species: Red gorgonian, Leptogorgia chilensis, Lophogorgia chilensis
Location: San Clemente Island, California
Image ID: 25395