American Avocets gathering at Salton Sea before continuing migration.
The desert of Imperial County.
California is known for many things, but there is some really good birding that you can combine with other stuff on a vacation.
I've visited a friend in north Los Angeles a few times and have driven around up to San Francisco in the north, Salton Sea in the east and Newport Beach in the south.
All the places I've visited have provided great opportunities to get good pictures since the birds are used to people and therefore are pretty approachable.
I have found two great places near "home", which in my case is the Pacific Palisades on the northwest brink of the city. Those places, the Malibu Lagoon and Marina del Rey combine swallow freshwater with rocky shores and sand dunes and hosts lots of shorebirds.
Other places I really like is the Salton Sea in the desert near Arizona, home to millions of migrating birds, the coastline around Monterey and the dry area with loads of wineyards near Solvang, north of Los Angeles.
Visited: Oct 2008, Dec/Jan 2008/2009, Dec/Jan 2009/2010, Aug 2010 and July 2011.
San Francisco, from the north side of the Golden Gate.
A Pacfic Coast speciality, the Black Turnstone.