June 23, 2025At River Partners, our teams are constantly encountering wildlife returning to once-degraded landscapes. One of the ways we stay in touch is through a group chat where teams share photos and videos of plants and animals they encounter, sometimes helping identify a species, sometimes just to share something rare or downright adorable.
So, we thought we’d share highlights about the wildlife making their homes in areas we’ve restored across the state as part of a new and ongoing blog series, “Eyes in the Wild: A River Partners Wildlife Journal.”
Throughout California, River Partners is transforming landscapes to accelerate the return of our state’s unique biodiversity, making critical habitat and homes for species on the brink, and ensuring common species populations remain healthy.
To kick off this blog series, we’ll start right in the heart of California and zoom into the San Joaquin Valley. It’s here that the state’s devastating decline in/near-total loss of native habitat and biodiversity can be most seen and felt most starkly—an estimated 95% of its historic wetlands have been drained and converted to other uses. Similarly, this is also where much of our transformative restoration happens, in efforts to transform degraded riverways into thriving habitats for struggling species. What follows are photos and videos captured on cameras and smartphones by River Partners staff the San Joaquin Valley.
Arena Plains (Merced County)
River Partners Associate Restoration Scientist Diego Garcia found this fantastic horned lizard getting some sun at the Arena Plains Unit within the 26,800-acre San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Merced County. This perfectly camouflaged reptile’s body is covered in spiny scales, with a crown of horn-like projections on its head. Adding to its already-effective camouflage, some species of horned lizards can actually shoot blood from their eyes as a defense against predators like coyotes.
When River Partners transforms degraded river landscapes into revitalized habitat, we take into account the diverse requirements of the region’s wildlife – like this horned lizard – and plan for a mosaic of habitats to maximize benefits for native biodiversity.
Dos Rios State Park (Stanislaus County)
Lit up by the early-morning sun at Dos Rios State Park, this monarch caterpillar was photographed by a former River Partners restoration scientist. A candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act, the monarch caterpillar’s diet consists solely of milkweed—here it is enjoying a breakfast of narrow leaf milkweed. River Partners has made a commitment to placing 15 million milkweed plants into the ground at our restoration projects throughout the state by the year 2030. Heritage Growers, River Partners’ native seed venture, will grow milkweed seeds and rhizomes for the monumental effort.
See the orange bugs attached to the stalks and leaves of the milkweed? Those are oleander aphid larvae, a non-native insect that could deter monarch butterflies from laying eggs if the infestation is big enough. This particular caterpillar seems to be doing just fine, though.
G Ranch (Merced County)
It’s possible that this Swainson’s hawk was getting ready for take-off in search of a meal high above G Ranch, our 634-acre restoration site about 10 miles southwest of Merced in Merced County, when Associate Restoration Scientist Bella Cardenas snapped this photo. Sporting a wingspan of up to 4 1/2 feet, this bird migrates great distances, often thousands of miles between breeding grounds in North America. They typically nest in tall oaks, black willows, or cottonwoods, which we plant plenty of throughout the Central Valley.
As a stop along the x-mile Pacific Flyway, G Ranch is an important piece of the habitat puzzle for an array of migratory birds. A restored G Ranch would be a welcome stop for migratory birds like Swainson’s hawks, as well as other resident bird species populating the area year-round, like bald eagles, burrowing owls, and imperiled tricolored blackbirds.
Panorama Vista Preserve (Kern County)
River Partners Field Technician Alex Villalobos was on a road within the 935-acre Panorama Vista Preserve, which straddles both sides of the Kern River in Bakersfield, when he saw this bobcat lope in front of him. He astutely (and quickly!) pulled out his phone and snapped a photo of this beautiful cat.
Asked by fellow River Partners staff if the bobcat had a kit or prey in its mouth, Alex said, “It was its lunch, a squirrel.”
San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge (San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties)
A camera trap we deployed last spring in the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge captured the moment a barn owl and desert cottontail discovered each other. This series of face-to-face photos shows the quick encounter—both seem surprised while they take a few seconds to assess the situation.
Associate Restoration Scientist Leah Young-Chung, said that while barn owls generally prey upon smaller animals, it is possible they would go for a rabbit of this size. She added that seeing an interaction like this on restored agricultural land illustrates how natural environments provide more diverse habitat than on a plot of land for one purpose. Owls like to hunt on habitat edges, so having (and creating) habitat with multiple edges offers more opportunities for interactions. So when designing habitat projects, it’s important to consider the nocturnal wildlife and their unique needs.
Photos like these underscore the benefits of deploying monitoring equipment to a restored site as it provides a glimpse of the wildlife we wouldn’t ordinarily see interact with each other. River Partners does not shy away from using technology in wildlife monitoring, site assessments, or asking questions or sharing information about our restoration work. Technology helps to make our efforts more successful, impactful, and beneficial.
