Notes about your surroundingsBirding Skills Sessions--The Sea...

Notes about your surroundings

Birding Skills Sessions--The Sea & Sage chapter of the National Audubon Society will be offering birding skills workshops for beginning birders. The classes, led by Sylvia Gallagher, begin in mid-January; reservations will be accepted through Jan. 5.

The topics to be covered in the workshops include: recognizing bird families; neighborhood birds; birds of playing fields and parking lots; birds of mud flats and shallow water; birds of the ocean shore; birds of the open country; birds of prey; birds of the stream-side woodlands and birds of lakes, ponds and marshes.

About 15 common birds of each of the particular local habitat will be highlighted at each session.

There will be 10 weekly meetings for each workshop. The dates and times of the workshops are:

* Wednesdays from 7:15 to 10 p.m. Jan. 13 to March 17.

* Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon Jan. 14 to March 18.

* Thursdays from 7:15 to 10 p.m. Jan. 14 to March 18.

* Fridays from 9 a.m. to noon Jan. 15 to March 19.

Four field trips to look for the bird discussed at the workshops will be scheduled at a later date.

The recommended book for the workshop is the “National Geographic Society Field Guide,” available at some bookstores or through the Sea & Sage chapter office for $18. Books will also be available for purchase at the first meeting of each workshop.

There is a maximum enrollment for each session, so people are encouraged to reserve their space early because that maximum has been reached frequently at past workshops.

A donation of $30 is requested.

Confirmations will be mailed Jan. 7, along with preliminary information and a map to the meeting place.

For information, contact Gallagher at (714) 962-8990 or the Sea & Sage chapter office at (714) 261-7963.

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 from the wetlands’ ecological reserve every 20 minutes beginning at 9 a.m. The last tour will depart at 10:30 a.m.

Those who would like to take the 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.