Learn to identify birds from a field guide in "Birding 101" Friday, May 9.

NEHALEM – In celebration of International Migratory Bird Day, the Lower Nehalem Community Trust is hosting a workshop for beginning and intermediate birders with Dawn Grafe, supervisory park ranger for the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge.

Grafe will present “Birding 101” from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, May 9, in the gallery of the North County Recreation District building, 36155 Ninth St. The workshop will highlight tools used for birding, what to look for when you bird, identification of birds using field guides and an identification slide show of common coastal birds. Suggested donation for the workshop is $5 for LNCT members and $6 for nonmembers.

Grafe will lead a guided birding tour of two trust properties from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 10. The tour will start at Vosburg Creek (at the corner of U.S. Highway 101 and Dubois Street, just south of downtown Wheeler) and continue on to Alder Creek Farm (at the end of Underhill Lane off U.S. Highway 101, north of Nehalem). The walk is free.

Grafe played a pivotal role in the recent development of the Oregon Coast Birding Trail, which includes Alder Creek Farm as a birding stop. She is also one of the coordinators and teachers at the Oregon Shorebird Festival and the Pacific City Birding and Blues Festival and taught a workshop, “Oregon’s Birds of the Wind and Shore,” in November.

The Lower Nehalem Community Trust is a local land trust dedicated to protecting and stewarding land for the benefit of all species in the Lower Nehalem-Neahkahnie Mountain region. For more information, contact the trust at (503) 368-3203 or LNCT@nehalemtel.net