Paul Szmal: Chris Lajewski is here from the Montezuma Audubon Center. Good morning, Chris. How are you?
Guest: Good morning, Paul. I'm great. It's great to be with you again.
Paul Szmal: How does the high heat and humidity like this affect some of the bird population around the region?
Guest: Well, you might notice fewer birds singing, fewer birds flying around during the middle part of the day, the hottest part of the day. But I can tell you for certain that during the early morning hours, like right now, there's a lot of bird activity. Same thing again, kind of right around sunset, there'll be a flurry of activity as birds are getting one last meal in. The adult birds right now are extremely busy feeding their young. In some cases, certain species of songbirds have already fledged birds out of the nest. So yeah, still hot, but you know, still a lot of birds around the whole Finger Lakes region.
Paul Szmal: So fledging, I take it is, you know, kind of leaving the nest for the first time?
Guest: That's right. Yeah. So when young birds are large enough to become, you know, flying birds there and taking care of themselves largely, it's called fledging and they leave the nest. And this time of year, many species of birds are getting ready to leave nests. We've been enjoying songbirds, woodpeckers have been leaving nests. We've been enjoying the purple martins. We have two purple martin boxes at the Audubon Center and the adults have been very busy feeding those young as well. And then we also had a really amazing birding survey last month for the black terns. Black terns are an endangered species in New York State. And on June 16th, several, well, two dozen actually, staff and volunteers surveyed about 14 different marshes all around the Montezuma Wetlands Complex and proud to announce that we found more black tern adults than we have since 1966. 132 adult black terns were seen flying around marshes. And then that's, you know, just to put that into perspective, back in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, biologists found 200 to 300 or so black terns. And then there was a significant drop-off during the 1980s and 90s when only a couple of black terns would be found in marshes. And some years during that time period, no black terns were found. But there's been a steady increase in numbers of black terns at the Montezuma Wetlands Complex over the last 25 years. And that's because we're managing water levels, we're controlling invasive plant species, and we're so fortunate to have an army of volunteers that help us with this conservation work and the important birding surveys to go along with that. So all around Montezuma now, in many of our marshes, you can find an endangered species, the black tern.
Paul Szmal: I think that's a great example, Chris, of how an ecosystem is interconnected. And if you make corrections to problems in the ecosystem, it can yield positive results.
Guest: Oh, no doubt. And over these last 70 years, you know, science and research has come a long way. We understand now better than ever before what birds need in order to survive. Audubon is doing this on a local level across the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. Our work at Onondaga Lake is another great example of that, where we now have, in some cases, 100 bald eagles spending the winter at that urban lake ecosystem. Eagles now nest at Onondaga Lake. And also Audubon recognizes that we have to be protecting habitat for birds during their migratory journey, during their entire life cycle. So stopover habitats in the southern part of the United States, in the Caribbean islands. And increasingly, we're protecting habitat and working with conservation partners in Central and South America, where many of our birds, like black tern, for example, go to spend the winter. So yes, science, people taking action that will benefit birds in the places that they need, is yielding positive results.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Chris Lajewski from the Montezuma Audubon Center here on FLX Morning. We always like to shine a spotlight on a particular species every month. I'm going to let you go ahead and pronounce the name of this one. I can get the warbler part okay, but the front part's a little confusing.
Guest: Yeah, I wanted to highlight the prothonotary warbler. This is a rare bird for us in the Finger Lakes region. It's a medium-sized songbird, like most warblers. It's about five or so inches long with about an eight-inch wingspan. It's mostly yellow in color. Head, the neck, and the chest and belly are all bright yellow. The wings are more of a blue-gray color, and it has a large black eye as well. This is a rare bird for us because its normal range is in the southern swamplands of this lower United States, lower 48 states, so the Mississippi River Valley on over to the Carolinas and the coastal areas and the swamps areas. It's normal range, but we do have a small population of prothonotary warblers breeding in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. We've seen them along the Clyde River, the Seneca River, as well as some of the smaller tributaries, and they're found in these areas because they are cavity nesters. So, they nest in holes in trees, but if people put out small bird boxes with about a one-inch or so diameter hole near water, the prothonotary warblers will nest there as well. So, this is a species that primarily eats insects. It forages usually low in a swamp area, maybe on the ground even, or on logs, or fairly low in the canopy in the shrub level of a swamp habitat. They're very busy right now bringing insects back to the young in the boxes, and we here in the Finger Lakes are really fortunate to have this southern species. We're at the northern and eastern most extent of the prothonotary warblers range. So, if folks are out paddling, kayaking, canoeing this time of year in the Clyde River, the Seneca River, or some of the wetlands around Montezuma Wetlands Complex, there's a chance that they can find a rare sighting for us, the prothonotary warbler.
Paul Szmal: I wanted to touch on a couple of workshops and events that are coming up at the Montezuma Audubon Center and some of the related properties, but first you recently had the annual benefit. How did that go?
Guest: Oh, it was our most successful and largest annual benefit in our nearly 20-year history. Really proud of that, and about 85 golfers joined us at Wayne Hills Country Club over in Lyons for a wonderful day of golf, and food, and celebration of conservation. These folks, as well as all the participants in our online auction and the raffles, helped us raise nearly $27,000 for conservation projects at the Montezuma Wetlands Complex and over at Onondaga Lake. Just amazing success here. We're going to be able to do so much more bird conservation and habitat restoration projects. We'll continue to expand our Next Generation of Conservationists program, where we work with high school and college-age students, providing volunteer opportunities as well as paid internships for these young, bright minds that we have in our community here, and providing them with the skills and the knowledge, the experience that they will need for a career in conservation. We have so many sponsors. Ron and Sharon Saluzzo were amazing sponsors once again for us. They've been supportive of the Audubon Center for, you know, so many years now. Honeywell and Parsons, also excellent partners with us. So, great success back in June, and carrying us now throughout the rest of this year.
Paul Szmal: One of the recurring activities that's happening at the Montezuma Audubon Center happens every Friday and Saturday running through August, and these are free kayaking adventures.
Guest: This is our fifth season of leading free kayaking adventures down on the Clyde River in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, and this is a partnership with Audubon and the New York State Power Authority. These are free kayaking adventures every Friday and Saturday through August. They take place at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. We enjoy a leisurely one and a half mile long paddle through the Clyde River, which is also known as the Erie Canal in that section, and we're enjoying a bounty of birds, other wildlife, the restored habitats of marshes and swamps and grasslands as well. Bald eagles are quite prevalent in that section of the river. Great blue herons, belted kingfishers, and so many other species like prothorontary warbler are found in that area. So, great opportunities to get out and explore with us with these free kayaking adventures. Now, we've expanded our equipment library over the last couple of years, so we are now offering free kayaks. These are adaptive kayaks, both single kayaks and adaptive double kayaks. So, these are modified boats with paddle posts and adaptive seat accessories, making these adventures available to all ability levels. These are great excursions for the whole family, really, really good for ages 13 and older. We launch at Rivers Crossing Campground in Marina, which is on the south side of Savannah, and looking, just looking forward to a really busy summer. Last weekend was our first weekend of these, and we're off to a great start. These do fill up very quickly, and we will sell out all of these adventures. And so, we encourage people to go to our website, which is autobahn.org slash Montezuma, click on our events tab, and they'll see the different ticket levels for the different boats that we have available this summer.
Paul Szmal: And quickly, let's touch on the Native Garden Workshop. That's coming up July 25th. There's also a Bird Study Merit Badge Workshop. That'll be on July 29th.
Guest: Right, the Native Garden Workshop, coming up on July 25th. That's a Saturday, 10 a.m. at Montezuma Audubon Center. It's an opportunity for people to learn about the value of native plants. We'll have an indoor presentation, followed by a guided walk through our native wildflower garden areas, and grasslands, and forest habitats, so people can see these native plants up close and in person. They'll also learn about the invasive species that do tend to encroach on our native species. There's also opportunities for people to take native plant home with them, if they join us for that event. And then the Bird Study Merit Badge. This is open to all scouts on Wednesday, July 29th, 10 a.m. again, Montezuma Audubon Center. Scouts will earn most of the activities associated with the Bird Study Merit Badge. And then, if any activities that are not completed can be homework, and then we will sign off on the Scout's Blue Card, which is required for the Merit Badge. All this information is on the website, again, Audubon.org slash Montezuma.
Paul Szmal: As always, Chris, appreciate having you on board, sir.
Guest: Thank you. Thank you, Paul. It's always a pleasure.
