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That rare bird you spotted on your last trip to Channel Islands National Park may be a good bit rarer than you thought. The Island Scrub-jay (Aphelocome insularis) is now estimated to be one-fifth of what had been previously believed, according to a study by the Smithsonian Institution’s Migratory Bird Center.

The blue whale is one of the earth’s loudest (its song travels thousands of miles), longest-lived (80-90 year lifespan) and largest animals known to have ever existed. Though long and slender, with a tapered body and a small dorsal fin, blue whales measure in at up to 100 feet in length. These more than 200-ton leviathans are truly creatures to be reckoned with.

A package of legislation that sponsors call the Conservation and Economic Growth Act and which critics maintain would severely cripple the nation's environmental laws and pose a threat to the National Park System is expected to come up for a vote in the House of Representatives this week.

Since bald eagle recovery efforts began at Channel Islands National Park in 2002, the number of resident bald eagles in the park has grown to more than 30. On May 19 the park will celebrate this achievement with a day full of activities.

When Congress returns to Washington later this month, watch for Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee to resume a push to exempt the Border Patrol from a wide variety of environmental and National Park Service regulations.

Restoring landscapes is not always easy, but when they are restored, the benefits to the surrounding ecosystem can be highly measurable. At Channel Islands National Park off California's coast, restoring Prisoners Harbor will bring back a particularly rare landscape -- a coastal wetland.

They really do have a rare bird at Channel Islands National Park: For the first time in a century biologists have spotted California Common Murre chicks on one of the park's islands.

It took about three months longer than anticipated, but a new staircase is in place at Anacapa Island at Channel Islands National Park, and so the public will again be able to visit this island off the California coast.

Anacapa Island, which has been closed to Channel Islands National Park visitors since June due to unsafe access, could reopen after Labor Day if a crane can be obtained to help install a new landing staircase, according to the superintendent.

Since 1999, when fewer than 100 island fox were thought to inhabit Channel Islands National Park, a recovery program has brought the species to nearly full recovery on the park's islands.

While there are a handful of islands to explore when visiting Channel Islands National Park, don't overlook the rich and intriguing resources of the Pacific Ocean when heading to the park.

Who would have figured that Channel Islands National Park has ties to rum runners?

Scientists working in Channel Islands National Park have found yet more evidence that an extraterrestrial impact about 12,900 years ago caused the extinction of numerous megafauna in North America and abruptly terminated the Clovis era of human occupancy.