Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues now, it is 8.39, we're up to 74, going to be a muggy and warm day today according to meteorologist Kevin Williams, and joining us on the line right now would be Chris Lajewski from the Montezuma Audubon Wildlife Refuge. I got all the words out right this time Chris, good morning, how are you?
Chris Lajewski: Good morning Paul, it's just another beautiful day up here at Montezuma Audubon Center, it's great to be with you.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and I usually drive through the Montezuma Refuge at least a couple, three times a week during daylight hours, and I've noticed what seems to be an increase in airborne traffic shall we say.
Chris Lajewski: Well we are in the dog days of summer here, we've got another hazy hot humid day, but we are already seeing southbound birds coming through the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, these are birds that are passing through the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, we're seeing them up at the Audubon Center in Savannah as well, we're seeing quite a few shorebirds, which are species like sandpipers, plovers, dowitchers, yellowlegs. These are birds that were way up in the Arctic tundra during the breeding season, so May and June, and their southbound journey can actually begin in July and the first half of August.
A couple reasons for that, first of all, if their first attempt at a successful nest fails for some reason, then the period for breeding up there in the Arctic is so short, there isn't enough time for the birds to make a second attempt, and so their best bet is just to pack their bags so to speak, and start working their way south to Central America, the Caribbean Islands, or even some of these birds head to South America for the winter, and survive that journey, survive the winter, and then try again next spring. So it's a little on the early side, you know, you might think, but right on par with what we normally see, so if folks are heading out around the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and the Wildlife Drive, for example, they'll notice lower water levels and exposed mudflats, that's a great place to see these shorebirds. Anywhere you can find some fairly shallow water, maybe two, three, four inches deep, that's where you're going to see these shorebirds that are not very tall, they're about a foot or so tall from head to tail, fairly long bill, great for catching aquatic insects and other aquatic organisms that might be in that very shallow water.
Paul Szmal: And I know I've seen a couple of the great egrets floating around here recently as well, and that happens to be the bird that's in our species spotlight for August.
Chris Lajewski: Yeah, this is a great bird, I think, personally. I've been leading some tours recently, both driving tours around Montezuma and paddling tours in our kayaks, and I'm noticing more and more great egrets, and they're quite a noticeable bird. They stand about three feet tall, they're a long-necked white bird overall with a yellow bill and black legs. Typically, we see them in marshes, ponds, the shores of our lakes and river systems, and they're foraging for aquatic insects, smaller fish even, and so just a very stately looking bird.
Now, this species is kind of interesting because it normally breeds along the coastal areas of the mid-Atlantic states on down to Florida and around the Gulf towards Texas. But during the post-breeding phase, they tend to wander, and we see birds actually heading northward towards the Finger Lakes region. So the birds that we're seeing now, they don't breed here. They were breeding down in the coastal areas, maybe Maryland, Virginia, headed north a little bit to find some additional food, spread out a little bit, and then once they fatten up, they get their food, they get their energy back, then they're going to head back down to the coastal areas of the southeast United States and the Gulf Coast states for the winter.
Now the reason why I really appreciate this bird so much is that this great egret species was decimated by over-harvesting and habitat loss throughout much of the 1800s. But because of conservation efforts, people actually started to see an increase in the number of great egrets as we got into the early 1900s. And that coincides with the timing of the organization of the National Audubon Society, the organization I work for. And it was a result of that that the bird became the symbol of Audubon. And we still proudly wear it on our name tags and our shirts and our hats at National Audubon Society. So, great time to be out in the waterways and around the marshes of Montezuma and many other finger lakes to see the great egret.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. We're talking with Chris Lajewski from the Montezuma Audubon Center. And we have the Montezuma Muck Race coming up here pretty soon, so the registration deadline is fast approaching.
Chris Lajewski: It is. Folks have until August 26th to register for the 28th annual Montezuma Muck Race. We talked about it last month. I just wanted to highlight it again today because time is running out to register. Gather up your team of bird enthusiasts and join us for a 24-hour birding competition on September 5th through September 6th, starting at 6 p.m. on Friday the 5th, going through 6 p.m. Saturday, September 6th. And this is a fun event. It's one of the highlights of the year for us at Montezuma Audubon Center, and once again, we're proud to be the host location for this event that's going to benefit the friends of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. Every year through this event, we raise about $15,000 for bird conservation work, environmental education programs, and public access projects like observation platforms, for example. If folks register with their team by August 26th, they can get t-shirts to commemorate this event. We have a variety of team categories, once again, this year. Everything from the recreational team, family teams. We also have collegiate teams, competitive, low-carbon, photography as well. And so there's an opportunity for everyone to participate. You don't have to be an expert birder to participate. You just have to be interested in birds, passionate, and want to get involved and support our efforts across the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. So if folks are interested in learning more and actually register for this event, they can go to the friendsofmontezuma.org.
Paul Szmal: And one of the other events that's coming up is the 18th Annual Robert F. DeRue Memorial Youth Hunts and Waterfowl Hunter Education Course. So this is kind of combining two elements together.
Chris Lajewski: That's right, and we've been proudly offering these youth hunting opportunities up at the Montezuma Audubon Center in partnership with our New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, biologists down at the Refuge, Wayne County Federation of Sportsmen Clubs, Ducks Unlimited as well. And we do this because hunting and sportsman activities are a part of conservation. There are certain species such as our resident Canada geese and the white-tailed deer that are out of balance with the rest of our ecosystems here in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex and really across much of the Finger Lakes region. So once again this year coming up in September and October through the 18th Annual Robert F. DeRue Memorial Youth Hunts, we're going to be offering several opportunities for young hunters ages 12 to 15 to participate in this activity. So we're going to start off with a waterfowl hunter education course on September 20th. That's a Saturday at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Folks are welcome to join us for the dinner which will follow immediately that course on September 20th at 5 p.m. and that's where we're going to have various speakers. We're going to have an environmental conservation officer and biologists talk about how hunting is a part of conservation across the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. And then the two hunts are coming up September 27th. That's a waterfowl hunt and we're going to also offer a pheasant hunt on Saturday, October 11th. We've got opportunities for everyone to participate. We've got more information and registration is on the Audubon website. That's Audubon.org slash Montezuma and then folks can click on the programs button right up at the top of the page to register.
Paul Szmal: Do you feel like the summer is flying by that we're talking about September and October events already Chris?
Chris Lajewski: Oh I know it's been a great summer, a very busy summer and we still have a lot of summer left to go. There's still a lot of paddling opportunities through our On the Canals program. These have been wildly successful. All of them have been selling out in July and so far in the first half of August. But we still have opportunities for people to join us for these guided kayaking excursions on the Erie Canal. They're free and we're offering them every Friday and Saturday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. And we're able to offer these for free for community members through a partnership with the New York Power Authority and this is now our fifth season offering these free guided kayaking tours. We have all of the gear for folks if they want to join us. There's solo kayaks. We have the life jackets, the paddles and we take people out into the wildest backwater areas of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex where we enjoy great egrets, the early shorebird migrants, warblers and vireas that are also starting to migrate, as well as bald eagles, osprey, hawks and falcons. You just never know what you're going to see out there but it's guaranteed to be wild. These are family friendly excursions kind of geared for ages 12 and older and folks can go to our events tab on the Audubon website again that's Audubon.org slash Montezuma to register. Spots are filling up quickly for the few remaining kayaking tours that we've got left this summer.
Paul Szmal: And we've got about a minute here. I want to make sure people save the date for this one. September 20 at the Montezuma Native Plant Festival.
Chris Lajewski: That's right. This is another Friends of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex event and the Audubon Center is going to be tabling at it and we're also going to be leading some of the pollinator walks associated with it. But a great opportunity again for the family to come out, learn about native plants, learn about the insects and birds that pollinate our native plants. It's a free event going to be held on September 20 starting at 9 o'clock in the morning down at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge on Routes 5 and 20 in Seneca Falls. We'll have various speakers, opportunities to get out and explore the wetlands with our guided educators and there's also going to be vendors, there's going to be food, ice cream, opportunities to purchase native plants and then put them in the ground in preparation for the fall season which is actually the best time of year to plant trees, shrubs and wildflowers. So folks can go to friendsofmontezuma.org for all the details on this great event.
Paul Szmal: And Chris, once again the website has a ton of resources, information on a lot of the events we've talked about. Where do people find it?
Chris Lajewski: Yeah, people can go to Montezuma, excuse me, Audubon.org slash Montezuma for all the details and programs and volunteer opportunities going on at Montezuma Audubon Center and we're located up on Route 89 in Savannah just a short drive north of the refuge.
Paul Szmal: As always Chris, we appreciate it. Thank you sir.
Chris Lajewski: Thanks Paul. Always a pleasure. It's 8 52 on FLX Morning.
