Paul Szmal: And FLX Morning continues on Finger Lakes News Radio. It's 840. We're at 49 under sunny skies. Chris Lajewski joins me from the Montezuma-Auburn Center. Good morning, Chris. How are you?
Chris Lajewski: Good morning, Paul. Just ducky. How are you today?
Paul Szmal: Good. Very good. Ducky. I imagine we're seeing a little bit of duck traffic and maybe some other bird traffic here as we start to get that that gradual turn in the change of seasons.
Chris Lajewski: Auto migration is in full swing across the Finger Lakes region and Montezuma wetlands complex is teeming with a great variety of birds right now. Yes, ducks are starting to move in to the area. These birds are heading south. They were breeding earlier in the year up in the boreal forest of Canada. Some go as far north as the Arctic tundra to breed and now with cooler temperatures we're getting some cold fronts coming through. More regular northerly winds are blowing and that's going to aid in bird migration.
Now Montezuma and many other important bird areas in the Finger Lakes region serve as an important stopover for these birds. Think of a long trip that you might take whether it's flying or or driving a vehicle making stops along the way. Birds do the same thing and they're going to be ending up at least down in the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay area, mid-Atlantic states for the winter. Some go as far south as the Gulf of Mexico and Florida areas. So a great time to be out birding around Montezuma wetlands complex right now.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I kind of consider Montezuma to be kind of like that thruway rest stop because there's food and there's fuel and there's a place to rest and pretty much everything that a migrating bird would need for a stopover.
Chris Lajewski: That's exactly right. In the Montezuma wetlands complex there's 50,000 acres of habitat, forest, wetlands, grasslands, waterways and it's all this habitat variety of habitat that is managed that provides that important stopover habitat for for birds this time of year but also during spring migration. And then also there are ample opportunities for people to get out and explore bird migration during this fall season. There are 30 miles of hiking trails. There are numerous public roads that people can drive along if walking doesn't suit their needs and observation towers. We have our two visitor centers, one at the refuge, one at the Audubon Center up in Savannah. So a lot of opportunities to get out and explore birds this time of year.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Chris Lajewski from the Montezuma Audubon Center. You just had the Montezuma muck race which sounds like it's a racing event but it really kind of isn't.
Chris Lajewski: Well that's right it's not traditional running race or biking race but it is a race to find as many bird species as possible over a 24-hour period and we're coming off of now the 28th annual Montezuma muck race and that was held from 6 p.m. last Friday to 6 p.m. this past Saturday and we shattered records. It was an amazing experience both in terms of the number of people that participated and the number of bird species that were found by all of the teams.
Now typically we see about a hundred and thirty to a hundred fifty participants total. This year we had 215 participants. We also had 47 individual teams in various categories from photography, recreational, competitive, collegiate, low-carbon. It's just great. We normally see around 30 teams and in terms of the number of bird species found the highest count going into this year was about 192 species. This year we found 200 species collectively.
Wow. And so it was it was great a lot of fun the camaraderies great seeing so many young people and the family teams as well as the various collegiate teams that participated. Great success for us and we were proud to host it up at Montezuma Audubon Center. We were the home base for the day-long birding excursion and people were camping at the center Friday night, turned in the checklists at the end and we also were proud to host the ceremony at the end of the event and this really is a fundraiser for our friends of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex.
Paul Szmal: Yeah it sounds like it was a success all the way around Chris.
Chris Lajewski: Oh yeah so you know we're this is a fundraiser in the end it's a friendly competition but it is a fundraiser for the friends and the friends of Montezuma do so much important work across the the wetlands complex. They raise money throughout the course of the year, they provide volunteer support, they help get the message out about the value of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex as an important bird area and we are on track to reach our goal fundraising for this event which is $10,000. There is still time for folks to donate to the muck race and contribute to our bird conservation work at Montezuma. Folks can go to friends of Montezuma dot org click on the muck race to donate. They've got through the end of this month to do that and then all that money goes right back into bird conservation projects such as waterfowl banding activities, we have other we have bird monitoring projects go on, we manage habitats with these funds and we also provide public access through these funds. New observation towers are constructed as a result of these projects so $10,000 is our goal this year and hopefully by the end of the month we will get there.
Paul Szmal: And then there's some youth activities that are coming up here Chris, youth waterfowl and pheasant hunts are on the horizon.
Chris Lajewski: Right, Montezuma Audubon Center is once again proud to offer this 18th annual Robert F. Durow Memorial youth hunting initiative. This is a great way for young hunters ages 12 to 15 with their adult mentors to come out and be with other youth hunters as well as New York State DEC biologists, Audubon staff, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists as well and engage in this valuable activity of hunting that is part of conservation and when when I talk about that people are kind of curious and maybe are a bit puzzled and so when I explain that some species are out of balance with the ecosystems around the Finger Lakes region and Montezuma as well such as white-tailed deer and the resident Canada goose population they begin to understand that yes we need to manage species we need to bring them back into balance with the ecosystems so that's why Audubon is proudly a part of this this youth hunting initiative and really laying the groundwork for hopefully a lifelong activity of hunting for these young folks.
So coming up on Saturday September 20th we're offering a waterfowl hunter education course just for our youth hunters and mentors. We're going to have a dinner to follow that. Later on this month September 27th is a youth waterfowl hunt and then in early October that's Saturday October 11th we're going to offer the youth pheasant hunt. Still opportunities for people to register we ask people to go to Audubon.org slash Montezuma and then click on our programs button to see the two registration links.
Paul Szmal: All right two important activities coming up at the Montezuma Audubon Center and you continue to seek volunteers because even as we are heading out of summer and into a fall and autumn the habitat restoration projects those are kind of ongoing almost through the entire year.
Chris Lajewski: Right Montezuma is a very managed ecosystem and we manage water levels we manage habitats we manage birds and other wildlife and and we do have some threats to this important bird area and mostly those come in the form of invasive plant species. These are plants that have been introduced here into New York State and across this country and as people move around they they generally bring invasive species with them so we have species that we manage at the Montezuma Wetlands Complex and we do that through our M.A.R.S.H. program. M.A.R.S.H. is an acronym for the Montezuma Alliance for the Restoration of Species and Habitats. It takes place every well not every but generally takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. This month we're going to be focusing in on one invasive species in particular it's called the Japanese stilt grass it's an annual grass plant that looks nothing like a grass that you might see growing in a lawn but it can choke out forest habitats it does very well in low light to partial light situations so we go in there with volunteers generally we have about 20 volunteers that come out every time we're out there families come out retired folks come out and college students as well and we hand pull this Japanese stilt grass bag it up and dispose of it properly so it doesn't choke out the forest we also have some seed collecting activities coming up later in the month and then early October seed is collected from grasslands and wetland habitats this is native seed the native seed is important to collect and then restore in other areas around the Montezuma Wetlands Complex so great opportunities to to get involved in habitat restoration projects be with other like-minded individuals and after a morning of work our friends organization have Montezuma provides lunch for everyone who comes out and participates we have the entire schedule up on our website it's Audubon org slash Montezuma click on events to see the latest listings and also to register
Paul Szmal: Yeah again that's Audubon org slash Montezuma you can find information not only on volunteering to help clear out some of the habitats but a lot of the other activities and events that are happening at the Montezuma Audubon Center Chris as always it's a pleasure thank you very much sir
Chris Lajewski: Thanks Paul hope you have a great day it is 851 on FLX morning
