CALIFORNIA: San Diego Wildlife Weekender
Harbor Seal - La Jolla, California
CALIFORNIA: San Diego Wildlife Weekender
Photography Tour by Wildside Nature Tours
DATES: FEB 9-12, 2025
TRIP LEADERS: JENNIFER LEIGH WARNER
COST: $2,549PP
GROUP SIZE: 3-5
Highlights of CALIFORNIA: San Diego Wildlife Weekender
Hands-on photo instruction for wildlife and landscape photography with Nikon Professional Jennifer Leigh Warner
Explore the coastal wildlife habitats of Southern California and photograph the native wildlife that winter in this region.
Photograph one of California’s only mainland Harbor Seal Rookeries during pupping season.
Photograph nesting shorebirds, such as Brandt’s Cormorants, along the California coast.
Description of CALIFORNIA: San Diego Wildlife Weekender
Looking for a warm place to photograph this winter? Southern California has some of the richest biodiversity in the country. With one of the only mainland Harbor Seal and California Sea Lion rookeries in California you will be able to photograph harbor seals giving birth and teaching their new pups how to swim. You will also get a chance to photograph California Sea Lions surfing the waves. San Diego County is one of the best places in the country to photograph marine wildlife, including nesting Cormorants, Brown Pelicans, Osprey and so much more. During this weekender you will photograph some of San Diego’s premier wildlife photography hotspots led by an award winning wildlife photographer who has spent over a decade photographing in this location.
Length of Tour
4-days/3-nights
Brief Itinerary
Day 1 – Arrive in San Diego
Days 2 Photograph in La Jolla both morning and evening sessions.
Day 3 – Photograph morning in San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve, Afternnon in La Jolla and evening at the Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier.
Day 4 – One last morning in La Jolla before returning home.
Detailed Itinerary
Day 1 – Arrive in San Diego and check into hotel.
We will head out to La Jolla Cove for an evening photo session before the sunsets.
Afterwards we will have a welcome dinner.
Days 2 – We will arrive in La Jolla Children’s Pool a beach set aside for pupping Harbor Seals. This is our best chance for photographing a seal birth while we are here. We will photograph pregnant and new born harbor seals both on land and in the water from the safe distance of the sidewalk and seawall viewpoints. This beach is closed in the winter to allow Harbor Seals to give birth and is one of the only areas in the world where you can photograph this in the wild.
Before heading into town for lunch we will walk along the coast to photograph surfing California Sea Lions and nesting Brandt’s Cormorants.
In the afternoon we will make our way back along the coast looking for Brown Pelicans, Black Oystercatchers, Hummingbirds, Osprey and California Ground Squirrels.
Day 3 – We will start our day at the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve. Habitats includes southern California coastal sage scrub, riparian and coastal wetland communities and is a critical migrating waterfowl habitat and nesting sites for sensitive bird species including the endangered Ridgeway.
After lunch we will head back to La Jolla to photograph more of the marine mammals and shorebirds before wrapping up at the Scripps Memorial Pier, a popular place for seascape photography.
Day 4 – Before returning home we will have one more chance to photograph the pupping Harbor Seals in La Jolla.
After our morning session we will head back to the San Diego airport for afternoon departures.
