The Montezuma Muckrace, the fundraising bird-a-thon for the Friends of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, was during the 24-hour period starting 7pm Friday 6 September. The Cayuga Bird Club sponsored our team, The Plucky Mucksters, which this year consisted of Gary Kohlenberg, Ann Mitchell, Susan Danskin, and myself, Dave Nutter. (Note: The name "Plucky Mucksters" was coined years ago by team founder and sometime leader, Bob McGuire, who did not participate this year. The rest of us think this name is goofy and are considering next year adopting a name with a less obscure bird reference, although perhaps equally goofy. Some names are great, such as the stationary team "Sittidae" and the biking team "The Un-Carbonated Wobblers". It'll take a lot of thought to come up with something that good, and we're not known for such effort, but 11 months of subconscious mulling plus a few minutes of actual fretting as the deadline arrives may result in improvement.)
Once again we entered in the "Recreational" rather than the "Competitive" category. This is in recognition of the well-established fact that we do not constitute competition to several other teams, and that pretending otherwise would result in crushed egos when a team whose average age is a third of ours accumulates 40% more species of birds, as was the case with this year's winning team of Cornell students. We also acknowledge that we are somewhat handicapped by my dulled hearing, Susan's complete unfamiliarity with fall warblers, Ann's balkiness when the rest of us clamber atop piles of road construction debris for a better view into nearby weeds, and Gary's... actually Gary is steady, well-studied, and observant. How did he end up on our team? Our primary goal was to have fun, which of course means finding birds, but which experience tells us does not mean wandering through clouds of mosquitos all night wondering if the noises in the dark are simply other lost souls making owl-like noises. We have also tried only staying up half the night not finding owls, and we still ended up cranky, so our tradition is to start at daybreak on Saturday morning.
Our first stop was Mud Lock, chosen because it's close to where we enter the Muckrace boundaries as we drive north from Ithaca, allowing us spend maximum time in our own beds. It's also inspiring to have BALD EAGLE and OSPREY among the first birds of the day, even though, as expected we encountered them other places throughout the day. Here we saw and heard our first GREEN HERON of at least 4 for the day, which also felt good because several people who record night flight calls reported a major migration of them on Thursday night. Perhaps they were arriving as well as leaving. Other Mud Lock dawn phenomena include a flight of swallows toward the lake, presumably from roosting sites in the Montezuma marshes, and a less substantial flight of gulls from the lake toward Montezuma for more obscure reasons. Both these groups are a challenge to ID high against a gray sky. Our biggest surprise at Mud Lock was to see two flying COMMON LOONS (long necks in front of a humped back; feet extended like a tail; long, narrow, pointed, rubbery wings constantly flapping) high over the bay to our south. We were hoping to see a Red-headed Woodpecker, which we saw there twice on scouting trips, but it did not cooperate (nor did the Mays Point family, despite two visits there).
The second major stop for us was Howland's Island. We could have driven onto the island from the west on Carncross Road and even driven past the gate whose lock combination was given to Muckrace teams, but we approached from the traditional southeast side. There's good birding along the narrow, 2-mile road from NYS-38 north of Port Byron, and it's satisfying to leave the car at the end of the road in the floodplain forest and walk over the iron bridge onto the quiet island. Shortly after our arrival we met a mixed foraging flock of small birds. They were numerous, active, high in the tall trees, backlit, and smaller than the leaves. Many birds were too poorly seen for us to identify, but perhaps if we'd memorized all the fall warbler traits we'd have done better. Another issue was that, despite being a "Recreational" team, we decided to follow "Competitive" rules - 95% of species we listed had to be observed by the whole team - because it's more fun if we all can share a bird. It was challenging simply to point out these fast-moving birds, let alone ID them, so several of our "dirty birds" for the day were from this encounter. Shortly after the flock moved deeper into the woods, as we were deciding which way to go - we were still at the first major trail intersection - a car drove up, four guys in camo got out, slammed their doors, and began making loud bird calls. Suddenly it was less fun there, and we moved off toward Coot Pond, site of the Ruff this spring, and Wood Ducks, Gallinules and Solitary Sandpipers on our scouting trip, but rather empty at the moment. As we doubled back we found that the mixed flock had returned to the edge of the woods, despite or because of the noise the other team made. I knew we had found the flock on our own, so we wouldn't be poaching to stand near them and try to ID the birds, but the other team did not know this, and my teammates out-voted me, so we walked away. The rest of the time on the island was pretty quiet. I think if we'd spent more time and effort on the island working on finding and identifying passerines we could have substantially raised our total. Or we could have simply included all species anyone in our group identified, and we might have placed better in the non-competition.
We actually made a schedule for ourselves and mostly stuck to it. We drove back to the Montezuma NWR Visitor Center, passing Kipp's Island, which looked like an unappealing agricultural field from the road. It was accessible only on Muckrace Day, so we didn't get to scout it. Maybe we'll never know what that place is like. At the Visitor Center we found our target WILSON'S SNIPE among several other shorebirds, and also had the pleasure of meeting Tilden Chao (seeking species #200 for the basin!) and his dad, Mark, out for some birding coincidental to the Muckrace. After a quick pass through the Wildlife Drive and South May's Point road we arrived at Towpath Road. Mark and Tilden had gone more directly, and Tilden flagged us down to point out his #200: a pair of SANDHILL CRANES. We had deliberately scheduled our arrival at Towpath figuring the marshes may be foggy in the early morning, but might have heat shimmer in the afternoon. What we didn't plan on was mid-day rain. Still, it was a light and intermittent rain, so we walked out onto the dike between Knox-Marsellus and Puddler (Hurrah for this opportunity!) and identified 13 species of shorebirds: AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER, SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, KILLDEER, GREATER YELLOWLEGS, LESSER YELLOWLEGS, the continuing rare and hard to find WHIMBREL, a sweep of expected Calidris (PECTORAL, STILT, BAIRD'S, WHITE-RUMPED, SEMIPALMATED, and LEAST SANDPIPERS), and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER. It was both challenging and rewarding. From the road we might have had a miserable time identifying more than 3 or 4 of them. Plus there was the AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, a couple of MARSH WRENS, some BOBOLINKS, several BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS, 8 species of waterfowl, a couple warblers, a NORTHERN HARRIER, and the common gulls and tern. We had seen Jay McGowan and heard of his quest to find 100 species on Towpath alone. It's certainly a great area, and it seemed that we'd found all the easy birds by the time we left. The rest of the day it seemed each stop would only yield one or two new species, or perhaps none at all.
Leaving Towpath we paused at the dead-end of North Mays Point Road to see if the Red-headed Woodpeckers were visible from here (they were not), but we found our first COMMON GRACKLE, and Susan sounded the air raid alarm for a PEREGRINE FALCON which was flying low over the trees directly toward Knox-Marsellus.
We doubled back to Tschache Pool, where we enjoyed the rare privilege of walking the dike a bit for views of numerous PIED-BILLED GREBES and AMERICAN COOTS, then climbed the tower hoping to see a late Black Tern. No luck there, but we were surprised to see again a/the AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, which we assumed only inhabited Knox-Marsellus and Puddler.
Our next stop was not on our itinerary. On a whim, knowing we were short on passerines, and remembering the numerous species singing in spring, we stopped by the floodplain forest along Armitage Road. It was eerily quiet. There were barely even any mosquitos. The only bird we added to our list was a HAIRY WOODPECKER. On the bright side, if we hadn't stopped there we would never know whether it was worth stopping.
From Armitage we wandered north and east to Van Dyne Spoor Road. En route we passed a dump of some sort where Susan glimpsed some little brown birds in the weeds. By scaling mounds of used concrete and asphalt, which necessitated some hand-holding for steadiness, we could see they were INDIGO BUNTINGS.
Because we had already spent so much time at marshes we added little at Van Dyne Spoor Road except to have everyone see an AMERICAN WIGEON (I had failed at directing my teammates toward a distant flying bird at Tschache before it dropped into the cattails), and to confirm our fears that Black Terns had all left. Still it was a fine birdy walk for Susan and myself, and I hope it was as pleasant for Gary and Ann who leapfrogged us by car.
Next we went to Railroad Road whose impoundments have been productive in the past, but we weren't able to actually scout this year because signage prohibited entry until the day of the Muckrace. We lined up on the dike and began scanning. I was the fortunate one who did not have cattails blocking the view of an AMERICAN BITTERN. Bill up, it stared at us past its chin for several minutes until the moment we each happened to be facing a different direction, then it flew to the other side of the pond. A little brown bird glimpsed along the shore of a small island eventually resolved itself into one of the rattiest SWAMP SPARROWS we'd ever seen.
At the corner of Van Dyne Spoor and Savannah-Spring Lake Road we tried to re-create a scouting walk in which we'd found a mixed species passerine flock and Susan had briefly seen a Least Bittern. The flock happened, but of course in a different place with different birds. Again we added a couple new species, cleaned up a couple others, and added a couple we didn't all see. The Least Bittern, unsurprisingly, was a no-show. We continued to Muckrace Flats, which, as during scouting, was inexplicably abandoned, then to the Deep Muck platform which afforded fine views of BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS, but did not add to our list. Along Carncross Road we gazed wistfully at a distant dead tree which during scouting hosted at least 5 species of swallows, but was now empty. We ended up without a Cliff Swallow on our list. Driving onto Howland Island closely followed by a Sheriff we tried to watch more high, distant, active, backlit warblers while simultaneously explaining what a Muckrace was. We were only partially successful; they both went away.
With time running low we drove past the gate. (Reminder for next time: The passenger who gets out to unlock the gate should either (a) open both gates wide, or (b) close the passenger door, or (c) explain the situation clearly to the driver. Screaming "DOOR" at the last moment over the sound of a gunning engine and wheels on gravel is apparently insufficient. Sorry about your car, Ann.) As we surveyed a marsh an immature Accipiter zoomed past low. Gary missed it altogether and only Ann was confident it was a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK: another "dirty bird". It was getting late, so we returned to the gate, more carefully this time. Traffic backed up behind us as other teams left the island. In a late rain we headed toward the tally at the Montezuma Audubon Center, but we couldn't help stopping at one more marsh. There was nothing new there, but I did drink in a fine view of a GREAT EGRET. We kept eyes on the sky for Common Nighthawk and on the feeder for House Finch, but eventually we had to hand in our tally of 101 species. It was nice to break a hundred (and not to know yet that Jay had done the same in one area just in the morning). We had a great time.
It's not too late if you want to contribute, and I hope someone will follow quickly with a message about how to do so. I still have to hand in the taxi tips which I am donating. The folks at the Refuge, the DEC, and the Audubon Center have really worked hard to make the area great for birds and birding, and the sponsors provided plenty of food and useful prizes. I snagged another Montezuma Wetlands Complex cap for when I lose or destroy last year's.
Once again we entered in the "Recreational" rather than the "Competitive" category. This is in recognition of the well-established fact that we do not constitute competition to several other teams, and that pretending otherwise would result in crushed egos when a team whose average age is a third of ours accumulates 40% more species of birds, as was the case with this year's winning team of Cornell students. We also acknowledge that we are somewhat handicapped by my dulled hearing, Susan's complete unfamiliarity with fall warblers, Ann's balkiness when the rest of us clamber atop piles of road construction debris for a better view into nearby weeds, and Gary's... actually Gary is steady, well-studied, and observant. How did he end up on our team? Our primary goal was to have fun, which of course means finding birds, but which experience tells us does not mean wandering through clouds of mosquitos all night wondering if the noises in the dark are simply other lost souls making owl-like noises. We have also tried only staying up half the night not finding owls, and we still ended up cranky, so our tradition is to start at daybreak on Saturday morning.
Our first stop was Mud Lock, chosen because it's close to where we enter the Muckrace boundaries as we drive north from Ithaca, allowing us spend maximum time in our own beds. It's also inspiring to have BALD EAGLE and OSPREY among the first birds of the day, even though, as expected we encountered them other places throughout the day. Here we saw and heard our first GREEN HERON of at least 4 for the day, which also felt good because several people who record night flight calls reported a major migration of them on Thursday night. Perhaps they were arriving as well as leaving. Other Mud Lock dawn phenomena include a flight of swallows toward the lake, presumably from roosting sites in the Montezuma marshes, and a less substantial flight of gulls from the lake toward Montezuma for more obscure reasons. Both these groups are a challenge to ID high against a gray sky. Our biggest surprise at Mud Lock was to see two flying COMMON LOONS (long necks in front of a humped back; feet extended like a tail; long, narrow, pointed, rubbery wings constantly flapping) high over the bay to our south. We were hoping to see a Red-headed Woodpecker, which we saw there twice on scouting trips, but it did not cooperate (nor did the Mays Point family, despite two visits there).
The second major stop for us was Howland's Island. We could have driven onto the island from the west on Carncross Road and even driven past the gate whose lock combination was given to Muckrace teams, but we approached from the traditional southeast side. There's good birding along the narrow, 2-mile road from NYS-38 north of Port Byron, and it's satisfying to leave the car at the end of the road in the floodplain forest and walk over the iron bridge onto the quiet island. Shortly after our arrival we met a mixed foraging flock of small birds. They were numerous, active, high in the tall trees, backlit, and smaller than the leaves. Many birds were too poorly seen for us to identify, but perhaps if we'd memorized all the fall warbler traits we'd have done better. Another issue was that, despite being a "Recreational" team, we decided to follow "Competitive" rules - 95% of species we listed had to be observed by the whole team - because it's more fun if we all can share a bird. It was challenging simply to point out these fast-moving birds, let alone ID them, so several of our "dirty birds" for the day were from this encounter. Shortly after the flock moved deeper into the woods, as we were deciding which way to go - we were still at the first major trail intersection - a car drove up, four guys in camo got out, slammed their doors, and began making loud bird calls. Suddenly it was less fun there, and we moved off toward Coot Pond, site of the Ruff this spring, and Wood Ducks, Gallinules and Solitary Sandpipers on our scouting trip, but rather empty at the moment. As we doubled back we found that the mixed flock had returned to the edge of the woods, despite or because of the noise the other team made. I knew we had found the flock on our own, so we wouldn't be poaching to stand near them and try to ID the birds, but the other team did not know this, and my teammates out-voted me, so we walked away. The rest of the time on the island was pretty quiet. I think if we'd spent more time and effort on the island working on finding and identifying passerines we could have substantially raised our total. Or we could have simply included all species anyone in our group identified, and we might have placed better in the non-competition.
We actually made a schedule for ourselves and mostly stuck to it. We drove back to the Montezuma NWR Visitor Center, passing Kipp's Island, which looked like an unappealing agricultural field from the road. It was accessible only on Muckrace Day, so we didn't get to scout it. Maybe we'll never know what that place is like. At the Visitor Center we found our target WILSON'S SNIPE among several other shorebirds, and also had the pleasure of meeting Tilden Chao (seeking species #200 for the basin!) and his dad, Mark, out for some birding coincidental to the Muckrace. After a quick pass through the Wildlife Drive and South May's Point road we arrived at Towpath Road. Mark and Tilden had gone more directly, and Tilden flagged us down to point out his #200: a pair of SANDHILL CRANES. We had deliberately scheduled our arrival at Towpath figuring the marshes may be foggy in the early morning, but might have heat shimmer in the afternoon. What we didn't plan on was mid-day rain. Still, it was a light and intermittent rain, so we walked out onto the dike between Knox-Marsellus and Puddler (Hurrah for this opportunity!) and identified 13 species of shorebirds: AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER, SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, KILLDEER, GREATER YELLOWLEGS, LESSER YELLOWLEGS, the continuing rare and hard to find WHIMBREL, a sweep of expected Calidris (PECTORAL, STILT, BAIRD'S, WHITE-RUMPED, SEMIPALMATED, and LEAST SANDPIPERS), and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER. It was both challenging and rewarding. From the road we might have had a miserable time identifying more than 3 or 4 of them. Plus there was the AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, a couple of MARSH WRENS, some BOBOLINKS, several BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS, 8 species of waterfowl, a couple warblers, a NORTHERN HARRIER, and the common gulls and tern. We had seen Jay McGowan and heard of his quest to find 100 species on Towpath alone. It's certainly a great area, and it seemed that we'd found all the easy birds by the time we left. The rest of the day it seemed each stop would only yield one or two new species, or perhaps none at all.
Leaving Towpath we paused at the dead-end of North Mays Point Road to see if the Red-headed Woodpeckers were visible from here (they were not), but we found our first COMMON GRACKLE, and Susan sounded the air raid alarm for a PEREGRINE FALCON which was flying low over the trees directly toward Knox-Marsellus.
We doubled back to Tschache Pool, where we enjoyed the rare privilege of walking the dike a bit for views of numerous PIED-BILLED GREBES and AMERICAN COOTS, then climbed the tower hoping to see a late Black Tern. No luck there, but we were surprised to see again a/the AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, which we assumed only inhabited Knox-Marsellus and Puddler.
Our next stop was not on our itinerary. On a whim, knowing we were short on passerines, and remembering the numerous species singing in spring, we stopped by the floodplain forest along Armitage Road. It was eerily quiet. There were barely even any mosquitos. The only bird we added to our list was a HAIRY WOODPECKER. On the bright side, if we hadn't stopped there we would never know whether it was worth stopping.
From Armitage we wandered north and east to Van Dyne Spoor Road. En route we passed a dump of some sort where Susan glimpsed some little brown birds in the weeds. By scaling mounds of used concrete and asphalt, which necessitated some hand-holding for steadiness, we could see they were INDIGO BUNTINGS.
Because we had already spent so much time at marshes we added little at Van Dyne Spoor Road except to have everyone see an AMERICAN WIGEON (I had failed at directing my teammates toward a distant flying bird at Tschache before it dropped into the cattails), and to confirm our fears that Black Terns had all left. Still it was a fine birdy walk for Susan and myself, and I hope it was as pleasant for Gary and Ann who leapfrogged us by car.
Next we went to Railroad Road whose impoundments have been productive in the past, but we weren't able to actually scout this year because signage prohibited entry until the day of the Muckrace. We lined up on the dike and began scanning. I was the fortunate one who did not have cattails blocking the view of an AMERICAN BITTERN. Bill up, it stared at us past its chin for several minutes until the moment we each happened to be facing a different direction, then it flew to the other side of the pond. A little brown bird glimpsed along the shore of a small island eventually resolved itself into one of the rattiest SWAMP SPARROWS we'd ever seen.
At the corner of Van Dyne Spoor and Savannah-Spring Lake Road we tried to re-create a scouting walk in which we'd found a mixed species passerine flock and Susan had briefly seen a Least Bittern. The flock happened, but of course in a different place with different birds. Again we added a couple new species, cleaned up a couple others, and added a couple we didn't all see. The Least Bittern, unsurprisingly, was a no-show. We continued to Muckrace Flats, which, as during scouting, was inexplicably abandoned, then to the Deep Muck platform which afforded fine views of BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS, but did not add to our list. Along Carncross Road we gazed wistfully at a distant dead tree which during scouting hosted at least 5 species of swallows, but was now empty. We ended up without a Cliff Swallow on our list. Driving onto Howland Island closely followed by a Sheriff we tried to watch more high, distant, active, backlit warblers while simultaneously explaining what a Muckrace was. We were only partially successful; they both went away.
With time running low we drove past the gate. (Reminder for next time: The passenger who gets out to unlock the gate should either (a) open both gates wide, or (b) close the passenger door, or (c) explain the situation clearly to the driver. Screaming "DOOR" at the last moment over the sound of a gunning engine and wheels on gravel is apparently insufficient. Sorry about your car, Ann.) As we surveyed a marsh an immature Accipiter zoomed past low. Gary missed it altogether and only Ann was confident it was a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK: another "dirty bird". It was getting late, so we returned to the gate, more carefully this time. Traffic backed up behind us as other teams left the island. In a late rain we headed toward the tally at the Montezuma Audubon Center, but we couldn't help stopping at one more marsh. There was nothing new there, but I did drink in a fine view of a GREAT EGRET. We kept eyes on the sky for Common Nighthawk and on the feeder for House Finch, but eventually we had to hand in our tally of 101 species. It was nice to break a hundred (and not to know yet that Jay had done the same in one area just in the morning). We had a great time.
It's not too late if you want to contribute, and I hope someone will follow quickly with a message about how to do so. I still have to hand in the taxi tips which I am donating. The folks at the Refuge, the DEC, and the Audubon Center have really worked hard to make the area great for birds and birding, and the sponsors provided plenty of food and useful prizes. I snagged another Montezuma Wetlands Complex cap for when I lose or destroy last year's.
--Dave Nutter
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