Biologist Dan Cooper was out surveying birds in Los Angeles's Ballona Creek recently and found something quite unexpected:

Dan Cooper heard the kitten-like call as he was surveying birds in the eastern section of the Ballona Wetlands. Then the field biologist saw something that sent his heart aflutter: a California gnatcatcher, the federally protected bird species that, as far as Cooper can tell, hasn't been recorded in the area since the late 1800s.