This Week's Most Frequently Viewed Images

Black-browed albatross chick on its nest, Steeple Jason Island breeding colony. The single egg is laid in September or October. Incubation takes 68 to 71 days, after which the chick is tended alternately by both adults until it fledges about 120 days later.
Species: Black-browed albatross, Thalassarche melanophrys
Location: Steeple Jason Island, Falkland Islands, United Kingdom
Image ID: 24152  

Eureka Valley Dune Evening Primrose. A federally endangered plant, Oenothera californica eurekensis is a perennial herb that produces white flowers from April to June. These flowers turn red as they age. The Eureka Dunes evening-primrose is found only in the southern portion of Eureka Valley Sand Dunes system in Indigo County, California.
Species: Eureka valley dune evening primrose, Oenothera californica eurekensis, Oenothera deltoides
Location: Eureka Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California
Image ID: 25237  

Sandstone striations. Prehistoric sand dunes, compressed into sandstone, are now revealed in sandstone layers subject to the carving erosive forces of wind and water.
Location: North Coyote Buttes, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona
Image ID: 20742  

Sandstone striations. Prehistoric sand dunes, compressed into sandstone, are now revealed in sandstone layers subject to the carving erosive forces of wind and water.
Location: North Coyote Buttes, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona
Image ID: 20736  

Marymere Falls drops 90 feet through an old-growth forest of Douglas firs, near Lake Crescent.
Location: Lake Crescent, Olympic National Park, Washington
Image ID: 13771  

The San Diego Museum of Natural History, Balboa Park, San Diego. The San Diego Natural History Museum is the place to find dinosaur bones and get a close up look at insects, birds and organic matter that make our outside world so interesting. Renovated in 2001, a new wing has doubled the museums original 65,000 square feet of floor space to about 150,000 square feet.
Location: Balboa Park, San Diego, California
Image ID: 14587  

Oceanside Pier at dusk, sunset, night. Oceanside.
Location: Oceanside Pier, California
Image ID: 14628  

Double-crested cormorant drys its wings in the sun following a morning of foraging in the ocean, La Jolla cliffs, near San Diego.
Species: Double-crested cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 15097  

Scalloped hammerhead shark.
Species: Scalloped hammerhead shark, Sphyrna lewini
Location: Wolf Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Image ID: 16250  

Hacienda Cusin, a 17th-century estate in the Ecuadorian Andes near Otavalo.
Location: San Pablo del Lago, Otavalo, Ecuador
Image ID: 16772  

Bristlecone pine displays its characteristic gnarled, twisted form as it rises above the arid, dolomite-rich slopes of the White Mountains at 11000-foot elevation. Patriarch Grove, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.
Species: Bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva
Location: White Mountains, Inyo National Forest, California
Image ID: 17486  

Bristlecone pine displays its characteristic gnarled, twisted form as it rises above the arid, dolomite-rich slopes of the White Mountains at 11000-foot elevation. Patriarch Grove, Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.
Species: Bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva
Location: White Mountains, Inyo National Forest, California
Image ID: 17496  

Carson Smith, Ponto, South Carlsbad, morning surf.
Location: Ponto, Carlsbad, California
Image ID: 17828  

Soda Springs Basin in Canyonlands National Park, snow covered mesas and canyons, with the Green River far below, not far from its confluence with the Colorado River. Island in the Sky.
Location: Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Image ID: 18093  

Black bear walking in a forest. Black bears can live 25 years or more, and range in color from deepest black to chocolate and cinnamon brown. Adult males typically weigh up to 600 pounds. Adult females weight up to 400 pounds and reach sexual maturity at 3 or 4 years of age. Adults stand about 3' tall at the shoulder.
Species: American black bear, Ursus americanus
Location: Orr, Minnesota
Image ID: 18899  

UCSD Library glows with light in this night time exposure (Geisel Library, UCSD Central Library).
Location: University of California, San Diego, La Jolla
Image ID: 20143  

Brown pelican spreads its huge wings to slow before landing on seaside cliffs.
Species: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 20156  

Brown pelican head throw, winter plumage, showing bright red gular pouch and dark brown hindneck plumage of breeding adults. During a bill throw, the pelican arches its neck back, lifting its large bill upward and stretching its throat pouch.
Species: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 20188  

California brown pelican portrait, on sandstone cliffs above the ocean, showing winter breeding plumage with dark brown nape, red throat and yellow head. Lit with flash, early morning before sunrise.
Species: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, Pelecanus occidentalis californicus
Location: La Jolla, California
Image ID: 20191  

Sailing stone on the Death Valley Racetrack playa. The sliding rocks, or sailing stones, move across the mud flats of the Racetrack Playa, leaving trails behind in the mud. The explanation for their movement is not known with certainty, but many believe wind pushes the rocks over wet and perhaps icy mud in winter.
Location: Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California
Image ID: 25329