Notes about your surroundings.

Birds of Note--A large number of rare bird sightings, especially of land migrants, were recorded this spring in the county, according to the Sea & Sage chapter of the National Audubon Society.

Sightings of note in the month of May included several gray flycatchers, usually infrequent visitors to the coast. Two were seen along the Laguna Beach coast, while others were spotted in Mission Viejo, Seal Beach, eastern Irvine and Huntington Central Park.

An ovenbird, a very rare visitor to the county from the eastern United States, was spotted in a Huntington Beach back yard.

Also in Huntington Beach, in Huntington Central Park, two northern waterthrushes were seen on May 5. While these birds are regular transients in the area in fall, it is not often that they visit in the springtime.

A Tennessee warbler and a black-and-white warbler were spotted at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, while another black-and-white warbler was spotted at Huntington Central Park.

The first spring sighting of a clay-colored sparrow was made on May 5 at San Joaquin Marsh.

In the middle of the month, two Brewer’s sparrows were spotted, one along the South County coast and one in the inland foothills.

Wetlands Tours--Guided public tours of the Bolsa Chica wetlands will be held Saturday morning. The tours, sponsored by Amigos de Bolsa Chica, will depart every 20 minutes, beginning at 9 a.m. and continuing until 10:30 a.m., from the wetlands’ ecological reserve.

Those who would like to take a tour are asked to meet at the ecological reserve on Pacific Coast Highway about half a mile south of Warner Avenue, across from Bolsa Chica State Beach.

Also, participants in the tours or others wanting information about Bolsa Chica’s wildlife and plant life are urged to stop by the Amigos’ information center in the reserve’s parking lot. Docents will staff the center from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday and Sunday through the summer months.