Another fun Muckrace! Where to begin?
Before the Muckrace began we lost another member. You will remember that Chris and Amy couldn't make it this year, since they are honeymooning in Panama (and seeing amazing new life list birds). Then I got a call from our other Pennsylvania birder, Dom, that he couldn't come. His grandmother had some serious medical issues, and the situation was not improving. Our thoughts are with your family Dom. You were missed, but we carried on, so hope to have you back next year.
So Dick and I decided to keep going, and make it a recreational team instead of a competitive team (need three for competitive catagory). This was actually refreshing since we didn't have to push ourselves, and we could take the time to really ID some good birds. Not that it slowed me down much, I can't seem to stop once I get going.
Anyway, we got the the Audubon Center in Savannah and set up or tent in the drizzle. The rain stopped though, and didn't rain again until the very last few minutes of the race to our delight. However, it remained gray the whole time. We drank a bottle of wine, ate some pretzels and chatted. We did go for a little stroll, but didn't turn up any birds before retiring for bed around 11 pm. Most other teams were just getting started with their owls around this time.
We got up at 6 am, and made our way to Howland's Island. Here we picked out some nice birds, but really didn't see any great numbers of Warblers, which is usually the target bird in the morning. We did see our best bird of the day, a Hooded Warbler to both our delights. We also had fun exploring two-tracks we had not been on before.
Then we explored some other smaller wetlands in the Northern Montezuma Wetlands, before heading to Knox Marcellus Marsh for lunch. Here we met a large crowd of birders IDing lots of species in the marsh below. But before we could get to see a lot, a tractor drove down on the property ajacent to the marsh, and scared all the birds off. I think he was mowing, but then he also proceeded to do some chainsaw work as well. So Dick and I had lunch without watching many birds.
We continued on during the afternoon, and bumped into some tired grumpy birders who didn't seem to approach the Muckrace the same way we did. I asked if they were having fun, and I was told, "No, this is serious business." Perhaps this was just a sarcastic crack, but no on on the team was smiling and they seemed annoyed with us, even though we at the spot already, and they were the ones that come up to us. Different strokes for different folks.
Watching the other teams is just as much part of the day as is watching the birds. We watched the winning team zip by us many times in the search for the next bird. At one water hole we were taking our time trying to ID shorebirds we struggle with, and they pulled up, backed up, repositioned, pulled forward, backed up again, went ahead, moved out of the way, then back to the first spot, then backed up......you get the point....all in an effort to get the best view for their window mounted scopes. It was kind of funny to watch.
Anyway, our faith was restored by the end of the day when we encountered the
10,000 Birds team. We were approached a spot for one last look, and they were leaving, and they told us the location of a Black Crowned Night Heron at the spot that we probably would have overlooked. Now that is the spirit of birding!
By the end of the day, Dick was dragging in energy, and I had just finished an energy drink, so I was ready to find the last five birds of the day. I said...just 5 more Dick. So off we went to find a House Sparrow (all day without one), a Kestral (we watched miles and miles of powerline to at last find one in a tree), a Bluebird (yes Dick, I'm sure of it), and our Night Heron.
Well, we were tired, and we ended with 61 species. Not a great number, compared the winning 130 species, but we enjoyed our time, and learned a lot, confident that we were better birders by the end of the day.
Now there is one more mission left....to raise some money for conserving this amazing treasure know as Montezuma. There isn't really another place in New York like it. Where could you go and see 180+ species of bird in a single day. It is recognized by the Audubon Society as a critical migratory bird area for the whole world. So if you didn't yet sponsor us, please do. I need to send in our contributions by October 1st. Our team might have been the team that saw the fewest number of birds, but I think we could shock the mucklands by being the team that raised the most money. Thanks everyone for your generous donations!
You can write me a check, send me cash, or donote here with paypal:
A big THANK YOU to all our friends, family, and sponsors who helped the "Three Muckateers" birding team raise so much money for the Montezuma Wetlands Complex this year.
