Notes about your surroundings

Newport Bay Tour--A guided tour of the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve will be offered at 9 a.m. Saturday. The area is home to a variety of waterfowl and other shore birds.

The tour is $2.50, or free for California Wildlife Campaign members. It will be led by a naturalist and last about 2 1/2 hours.

Those who would like to participate are asked to meet at Backbay and Eastbluff drives in Newport Beach. For more information, call (714) 640-6746.

Rare Birds--According to the Sea & Sage chapter of the National Audubon Society, the spring migration season was marked by migrants that arrived either very early or very late, and there was a pronounced slowdown in sightings midseason.

Three exceptional finds included a prothonotary warbler, discovered behind the El Morro Elementary School in Laguna Beach on May 6. Someone looking for the warbler the next day found instead a brown thrasher. In addition, the county’s fourth recorded sighting of a white-eyed vireo was made on May 8 at Bartlett Park in Huntington Beach.

Those participating in the Sea & Sage chapter’s birdathon found several interesting birds, including a horned grebe at Peters Canyon Reservoir, a snow goose at Craig Regional Park, a solitary sandpiper and merlin at the Old Ranch Sod Farm, a gray flycatcher at Huntington Central Park, a bank swallow at San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, a Harris’ sparrow at Irvine Regional Park and two great-tailed grackles at Laguna Reservoir.

Other local sightings of note include a Swainson’s hawk over the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, an acorn woodpecker near the mouth of the Santa Ana River, and a white-throated sparrow in a Fountain Valley yard.