California Garden

 One of the things I love about traveling to new places is discovering different wildlife. During my trip to the USA last year I stayed in San Martin, California and in the garden there was a host of different birds, insects and lizards. I could have spend so much time just in the garden but with so much to explore and so little time I didn't have the time to do more than get a few snaps. Here are the best of them.

House finch

Acorn Woodpecker

Brewers Blackbird (?)

Northern Mockingbird

Californian Towhee

Hooded Oriole (female)

Hooded Oriole (Male)

Anna's Hummingbird

Coast Range Fence Lizard

Some Woodland and Garden Birds

So I won't make any claims about the quality of these shots, and apart from saying they were taken handheld using my large telephoto lens on a cold morning I won't make any excuses about them either.

I love the challenge of photographing wildlife and would love to spend much more time out searching for the perfect shot. The first 6 shots were taken as I was heading back to my car after standing on the edge of a lagoon photographing a family of beavers and the woodpecker shots were captured after taking  a wrong turn at the start of a hike at Mount Mackay.

At the time I took these pictures I tried top identify the different birds but a few months have passed since then and I have largely forgotten.

The first two shots are of a Black-throated Green Warbler, the last two are of a beautiful Downy Woodpecker and the one before the woodpecker is a Black-capped Chickadee.

The other two species however I couldn't identify, I figure they might be varieties of sparrow or warbler but after a long time scanning through different images online I still couldn't definitively say what they are. Whatever they are along with the other shots they are a nice selection of some of Canada's  wonderful wildlife.