I recently went out to California to visit with my family and had the opportunity to go looking for wildlife with my dad. We stayed in Nevada for a few days first and my main goal was to find and photograph some of the feral horses that live in the Reno area. We found some pretty quickly but they weren’t in a place where we could stop and get near them. And after much driving around and having no luck, we finally found a really small herd. They were super mellow and let me get some really beautiful photos.
Feral Horses
Feral Horses
I had a few definite targets I really wanted to find this trip aside from the horses. One of them being the California Quail. My dad and I actually saw and heard them absolutely everywhere in Nevada and California and while a lot of them got scared away pretty easily, I got some really beautiful shots. Another good find was Acorn woodpecker, and we all know how I feel about finding woodpeckers! These guys are really quite striking and unique looking.
California Quail
Acorn Woodpecker
At first I thought these crossbills were the same type we have out here in the Midwest (white-winged), but to my delight they are actually Red Crossbills. They look quite similar but seem to be a bit larger in size. Then I came across what I thought was a new species of junco I hadn’t seen, but turned out to just be a different color morph of Dark-eyed Junco, and I believe its called Oregon Junco.
Red Crossbill
Dark-eyed Junco
Western Gray Squirrel
My dad and I spent a whole day driving to a few different wildlife viewing locations and had some really great luck finding a lot of birds. The first stop we made was at the Llano Seco viewing area. There was quite a bit of water fowl here and I was able to get some great new species.
Northern Pintail, Black Phoebe
Gadwall, Canada Goose
We went to another area called Grey Lodge and this place was actually so unique and really neat to drive around. There was a ton of road ways and trails to explore and we really saw so many animals and birds. The best shot of all was one of my most sought after birds, an owl! We thought it was a hawk swooping across the road, and when I did a second look, it was a Great Horned Owl. I was so surprised and delighted and we couldn’t believe it.
Great Horned Owl
The most elusive target of the whole trip, were the California Scrub Jay, and the Stellar Jay. And while we were only able to track down the scrub, that just leaves me with something to find next time! I would like to try and get some closer up shots of these guys next time too. I find it really interesting how unique looking each type of jay looks, and they really don’t resemble each other.
California Scrub Jay
