Poke around at the shoot bases to discover the nature of their origin.

Note also spelling is Camellia.

It is not very common for a camellia to self seed, although it can happen. They do not come true to type and it often takes a number of years before mature enough to bloom. But a large camellia makes a wonderful perch for birds and it is quite possible that birds have 'gifted' you with some other plant.....in the PNW my first guess would be English laurel, which bears a strong resemblance to a camellia when young and self seeds with abandon, to the point of it being a borderline invasive species.

Can you post a photo of this seedling?

Thanks for the comments

Here is the situation on the ground

FYI, I collected a few seedpods from a camellia in my garden a few years ago and got one seedling to grow from them. It's about 8 inches tall now, guess it will be a while before I see how close to the parent it turns out (the parent plant is a double red). I live outside of Bonney Lake. I haven't seen any volunteers growing in the mulch around the camellia, although I have a hibiscus (Rose of Sharon) that is apparently doing that (note to self, got to move those seedlings).

Some years ago, I became Gardenweb friends with a man who served as an officer of a camellia society of some sort (don't remember the details) who lived on a property with many very old camellias. He collected and sent me a bag full of freshly harvested seed one year.

The seeds need to be harvested from the pods that have just fallen. The seeds, about fifty of them, came in a zip lock filled with long fiber sphagnum moss that he advised me to moisten and place in the fridge until they began to sprout. All of them successfully germinated and I planted them in individual cell packs with plans to move them up as they developed.

He said that some of the seedlings that he has grown turned into truly special beauties, though certainly not genetically identical to the parent plant.

Congratulations! Do you have any pictures of your "special beauties" blooms?