Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues, it's 839 and 59 degrees, joined by Chris Lajewski from the Montezuma Audubon Center. Good morning Chris, how are you?
Chris Lajewski: Good morning Paul, it's another birdie day here in Montezuma, great to be with you.
Paul Szmal: And I have to share a couple of personal bird sightings here, and ironically it's the same species that I found in two different places. One while I was at my parents' house on Mother's Day, they had told me about it and then I got to see it. And then this morning I came out, one of them was hammering away on a tree in the parking lot at a place where I live, a pleated woodpecker.
Chris Lajewski: Oh yes, the largest woodpecker species that lives in the Finger Lakes region. It's also affectionately known as the woody woodpecker, for folks that remember that cartoon way back in the day. They have a very loud call that reverberates through forested sections, even suburban neighborhoods throughout the Finger Lakes. They will nest in cavities or holes in trees. This is a time of year when they're paired up with mates, they're laying eggs in preparation for raising chicks throughout the late spring and summer months. They're going to feed on insects primarily. Both parents will go out from the nest, forage for insects, flying insects primarily, and bring those insects back to the nest. Where if you find a nest or a hole in a tree, you may even see these young birds sticking their heads out, getting food from their parents.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, cool bird for sure.
Chris Lajewski: Yeah, absolutely cool. And it was kind of neat to do the whole discovery on it. My dad had told me about it and then I looked it up and Googled and saw the picture and I'm like, wow, he's got a big old nose.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it's got a big beak for sure. They're going to make a lot of noise and, you know, banging on trees to make noise. And actually that banging of trees or pecking of trees, or even sometimes like in my backyard, I'll even hear woodpeckers banging on metal signs, you know, so just anything that's going to make a lot of noise and announce their presence and that can attract mates, potential mates and also potentially keep other woodpeckers, other male woodpeckers from invading its territory.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, we're talking with Chris Lajewski from the Montezuma Audubon Center here on FLX Morning. I understand, Chris, that we're at the peak of a songbird migration season. This mid-May season is just the peak of warbler migration. We're seeing many vireos coming through, Baltimore Orioles, hummingbirds and other birds that spent the winter down in the Central and South America. They're all migrating through the Finger Lakes region right now. We're pretty much at peak.
Chris Lajewski: So when folks are outside in the morning or even in the evening going for a walk, walking the dog, they're probably experiencing a cacophony of sound. And it's just millions of birds that are on the move right now. Many of these songbirds are migrating at night when we're not even noticing them. And they do that by figuring out and observing celestial objects in the sky. They know where the North Star is located, and if the moon is present in the sky, they know that that's going to be generally in the southern section of our sky here in the Finger Lakes. And so those objects at night help them migrate northward. Every night right now, hundreds of millions of birds are on the move. And when the sun begins to rise in the early morning hours, that's when they descend into forested sections and even grassland habitats. And they rest, they feed, they refuel in preparation for breeding. They may stay in that area for breeding, or they may even go further north. Some of the birds that are migrating through right now are going to go up to the boreal forests of central Canada. That's another thousand miles north of the Finger Lakes region. So a very long, arduous journey that these birds are undertaking right now.
Paul Szmal: And when you think about the long distance that they're going, some of these birds, like Cerulean warbler for example, it winters down in the Andes Mountains of South America. That's a good 4,000 miles south of the Finger Lakes region. If a human being had to go that same equivalent distance, that's like us traveling around this planet two times. So a lot of fuel, a lot of food, and a lot of habitat is needed in order for them to rest and make this journey. It's really impressive right now, and Montezuma is one of the best places to see these birds migrating through.
Chris Lajewski: That's what I'd call a lot of frequent flyer miles.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, no doubt about it. And so Cerulean warbler in particular is one of my favorite birds. It's hard to pick a favorite. It's like a kid, you can't pick your favorite, but one of my favorites is Cerulean warbler. This is a, I think it's a beautiful bird, mostly blue in color. It's about four and a half inches or so in length. The males kind of stand out from the females. They have kind of a bluish head, back, and wings underneath on the belly and the chest. Mostly white. Females are just kind of duller in color, just a hint of blue on the back. And they're going to be seen throughout the Finger Lakes region in high-end canopies, high-end trees. That's where they nest. They feed primarily on insects. They give a series of buzzy notes. And so right now is a great time to be out around Montezuma. Actually Montezuma has got the largest population of breeding Cerulean warblers anywhere in New York State. And this species is a species of concern because of habitat loss, primarily down in its wintering range in the Andes Mountains. The forested areas down there are being altered, modified, or all out destroyed. So we're losing this species down in wintering grounds. However, we continue to provide viable, healthy, intact breeding habitat here in North America and primarily right here in the Montezuma wetlands complex.
Paul Szmal: Speaking of habitats, you have a habitat restoration event coming up on Friday, I believe it is?
Chris Lajewski: Yeah, this Friday we've added another event to our habitat restoration calendar. And this Friday, that's May 16th, 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we're going to be getting out into a section of the Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area here in Savannah. And that's just down the road from the Montezuma Audubon Center. This is an opportunity for people to get out with like-minded individuals, with Audubon staff, as well as our New York State Department of Environmental Conservation colleagues, and removing invasive plant species from this particular section of Northern Montezuma. The threat of invasive species is one of the prime threats to birds and the places they need. Invasive plants can choke out forested sections as well as marsh habitats. And we're going to be working kind of in a mixture of a forested section with a little bit of marshy habitat. So we're encouraging people to come with some type of hiking boot for sure, if they've got knee boots, that would be a great idea. We'll provide gloves, we'll provide the equipment, the tools, and the knowledge that they're going to need in order to work with us to remove these invasive plant species. We're going to be working on removing some shrubs. Bush honeysuckle is an invasive that we're still managing throughout Montezuma. There'll be some other species removing as well.
Paul Szmal: If folks can't join us, well first of all, if they can join us, we're encouraging them to email us, actually is the best way to register for this event, montezuma at Audubon dot org is our email address. And if folks can't join us this Friday, we're going to have more of these habitat enhancement projects listed on our website, they're going to be coming up this summer, our website Audubon dot org slash Montezuma.
Paul Szmal: And I wanted to ask you how the Earth Day events went.
Chris Lajewski: Oh, yeah, thanks for asking. We had two different Earth Day events a couple weeks ago. One was the Friday of Earth Day week. And we held that one over at Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, we partnered with our good friends at National Grid, and we had about 100 National Grid employees come out and help us cleaned up the shoreline and the wetlands of that newly restored, cleaned up lake. We gathered hundreds of pounds of trash that had washed up during the winter months, and improving the habitat for birds, the wildlife, and of course, the enjoyment of people. There's a great paved trail now that goes around most of Onondaga Lake, making the lake even more accessible. There are several kayak and motorboat launches over the course of the lake as well. So people are coming out and enjoying the lake again and seeing it as a community asset. And so Audubon's been proud to be part of that initiative over the last 12 years.
Chris Lajewski: And then the following day, Saturday of Earth Day week, we held a habitat enhancement project right at Montezuma Audubon Center, and we had about 20 people come out and helped us get our native gardens in order for the season. We spread a lot of mulch down, we did some weeding and pruning. Our gardens are filled with native vegetation, these are plants and shrubs that are utilized by our native birds for shelter. They can nest in them, but also they'll be developing fruits and seeds over the course of the season, so providing valuable food for them too. And so a couple of great events to celebrate Earth Day a couple weeks ago.
Paul Szmal: All right, we've got about a minute left and I want to make sure we get a plug in for the annual benefit coming up, because I know that's your major fundraiser for the year.
Chris Lajewski: Yeah, there's still an opportunity for people to register or sponsor our largest fundraiser of the year. It's coming up on Monday, June 9th. Folks can go to our website, again, that's Audubon.org slash Montezuma, click on the link to register, to sponsor. We're going to be at Wayne Hills Country Club once again this year for golf. If folks can't join us for a full day of golf and just want to join us for cocktails and a dinner, there's that option as well. All the benefits, all the proceeds from this annual benefit go to support bird conservation and our Next Generation of Conservationists initiative, which is inspiring and working with high school and college students and providing internship opportunities to grow in this field of conservation. So again, annual benefit coming up on Monday, June 9th.
Paul Szmal: All right. As always, Chris, appreciate the info and we'll talk to you next month.
Chris Lajewski: It's always a pleasure, Paul. Thank you.
Paul Szmal: It is 8 52 on FLX Morning.
