Report on the Twelfth Annual Muckrace

There was a very limited night flight, with three species of thrushes identified by flight call, but little else.  During Saturday, flocks were few and far between.  25 species of birds were identified by only one team.  Overall, 19 species of waterfowl, 10 species of raptors, 23 species of shorebirds, eight species of flycatchers, seven species of thrushes, and 26 species of warblers were found.

The winning fund-raising team, with $1430.20, was The Three Muckateers, sponsored by Micron Industries.  The team consisted of John Ballou (Rochester, NY), Dick Beery (Shreve, OH), and Dom DeFazio (Olyphant, PA).  Second place, with $1316.00, went to the Capitol Cuckoos, sponsored by the Audubon Society of the Capital Region, consisting of Jane Graves, Meena Haribal, Larry Rowland, and Alison Van Keuren.  Third place, with $640.90, went to the NYSDEC Crane-iacs, sponsored by the Old Duck Inn, consisting of Jim Eckler, Dave Odell, Paul Novak, Mike Putnam, and Mike Wasilco.  The money raised by these three teams, $3387.10, was matched dollar-for-dollar by the Friends of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. This enabled us to exceed out $11,000 goal, with a net total raised of $12,251.50.  The funds raised are being used to restore a shallow-water marsh for shorebirds on Savannah-Spring Lake Road in the Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area and to expand the wetland educational opportunities at the Montezuma Audubon Center by enlarging the retention pond/wetland west of the Center.

The winning competitive team, with 130 species, was EmpidoMAX!, sponsored by the Cayuga Bird Club.  The team consisted of Jay McGowan, Shawn Billerman, Tom Johnson, and Brad Walker, all Cornell students.  Second place, with 124 species, went to the New York Ornithological Association’s Tyrannus tyrannus (formerly known as The Real White-Rumps), consisting of Mickey Scilingo, Jeff Holbrook, and Marty Mau.  Third place, with 123 species, went to the self-sponsored Wind Birders, consisting of Bob Spahn, Doug Daniels, Allan Strong, and Kinsley Whittum.

The winning youth team, with 83 species, was the Downy Chicks, sponsored by the Cayuga Bird Club, followed by The Hummers, sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited, with 63 species.

The Low-Carbon category was won by Ryan Douglas, the St.-Louis Cardinal, also sponsored by the Cayuga Bird Club, with a mountain and road bike combo, who tallied 103 species in 9 hours and 52 miles of birding, even though he had forgotten his insect repellant.  The second-placed team, with 97 species, was Audubon NY’s No rEgrets, with a mere single bike apiece.

New this year was an attempt to make participants more aware of their carbon footprint by asking them to keep track of mileage and then calculating the number of species per mile.  The winner of this category was the Montezuma Misfits, with 1.15 species per mile (spm), Second place went to the Capitol Cuckoos, with 1.02 spm, although since they were driving a Toyota Prius, they calculated that they tallied 37.66 species per gallon! Third place went to the NYSDEC Crane-iacs, with .91 spm.

The Muckrace, organized by Friends of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, its partners in NYSDEC and the USFWS, and Audubon NY, raises money for bird conservation projects within the MWC.  This year the funds raised are being used to restore a shallow-water marsh for shorebirds on Savannah-Spring Lake Road in the Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area and to expand the wetland educational opportunities at the Montezuma Audubon Center by enlarging the retention pond/wetland west of the Center.