Paul Szmal: Let's check in with Chris Lodzewski from the Montezuma-Auburn Center. Chris, good morning. How are you this morning?
Guest: Good. Good morning, Paul. I'm great. Great to be with you.
Paul Szmal: I noticed this morning, taking a trip out, we have an open field area out behind the Geneva offices here. And I noticed recently, there seemed to be more than the usual amount of Red Cardinals this year.
Guest: Oh, yeah. So this time of year, the Northern Cardinals and other year-round resident bird species are quite busy rearing their young. They're in the process of fledging from nests. And the adult Cardinals are quite busy now showing the young birds how to feed, how to find nesting areas, how to find suitable areas to hide from potential predators. And so, yeah, I'm noticing an uptick in the number of birds at Montezuma-Auburn Center, Northern Cardinals, other songbird species as well. So, yes, busy time of year for adults, for juvenile birds that are learning their way and how to be wild birds here in the Finger Lakes region.
Paul Szmal: Notice, too, a couple of Blue Jays. And I don't remember seeing that many Blue Jays around last year.
Guest: Well, Blue Jay is another year-round resident species for us here in the Finger Lakes region. Just like Cardinals, Blue Jays are showing the young Blue Jay birds how to be wild birds. You can find them at bird feeders. They will come to black oil sunflower seed feeders. And, of course, now that the vegetation is growing, insects are becoming more abundant out in the wild landscapes. There's ample food for Blue Jays, Cardinals and so many other species here in the Finger Lakes.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I even saw one this morning that I don't think I've ever seen before. Smaller bird, gray spotty, brown feathers and a bright orange beak.
Guest: Hmm. Well, you had me with the brown and the spots and I was thinking sparrow, but then you say orange beak. Yeah. That's an unusual. Yeah. I had to think about that one for a bit. Nothing is coming to mind. But here in the Finger Lakes this time of year, you know, about 200 different bird species are here and breeding right now. They're in backyards. They're in the yards of businesses as well. Marshes, forests, grassland habitats as well as urban areas. And we're so fortunate to have a great variety of habitats here across the Finger Lakes. Many conservation organizations like National Audubon Society, our land trusts, New York State D.C. are protecting and enhancing habitats for birds and the places that they need today and tomorrow.
Paul Szmal: And the other cool thing, too, is you walk out back here behind the radio station and you have the Daily Bird Symphony going on.
Guest: Oh, a cacophony. Yes, a symphony of bird songs. And they get going quite early or late, depending on your time frame. But, yeah, five o'clock in the morning, sometimes even more like four, actually more like 430 now that we're sunrise is right around 530. So daylight is starting to creep in by 430 and birds are starting to sing. And what they're doing now with the singing and so early, they're announcing their presence to potential predators, but also letting other bird species know that they are there and that is their territory. And please stay away from my territory. The other thing that they're doing is communicating with their young that are probably fledging from nests right about now. So staying in contact with them, letting those young birds know, hey, mom and dad aren't too far away. Or they could be saying, hey, come over here. There's some great food or there's some fresh water here to drink. Or let's let's get into some sheltered habitat over here. Stay away from predators. So a lot of communication going on right now.
Paul Szmal: Yes. And in some cases early in the morning. Chris Lejewski is here from the Montezuma Audubon Center here on FLX Morning. And every month we'd like to spotlight one particular species of birds. And we got a pretty cool one for this month, the osprey.
Guest: Well, osprey is one of our larger birds of prey. And it's up here across the Finger Lakes region for much of the spring season and certainly through the summer months. And then kind of first half of fall before they start to migrate south. Now, this is a very large bird. It stands about two feet tall, but the wingspan from wingtip to wingtip can be more like five and a half to six feet. Just slightly smaller than a bald eagle's wingspan. And overall, the bird is fairly light colored. There's a lot of white on the throat and the chest. And most of the head is white. However, there is a black streak that starts off at the eye and kind of goes back towards the neck. This bird species also has a large yellow eye. And being a bird of prey, it can typically be found along river corridors, lakes, marshes. So not too far away from water. And the reason why they're near water is their favorite food is fish. And so what they will do is they will circle high over a body of water. And looking for a fish that might be just a few inches below the surface of the water. And we're going to go after some larger fish species. Something that might be six to twelve inches or so in length. So bass or sunfish, maybe even carp, smaller carp, can be on the menu of the osprey. And once they see a fish not too far below the surface, they will bring their wings in towards the body. And then that will help them pick up speed. And they can hit the water, talons first, at a speed of 50 to 60 miles an hour. Very impressive. Once they're in the water, they close the talons over that fish and hoist it up out of the water. And then they bring it up to a branch or up to their nest to feed. Just an incredible, incredible sight. Now this species of bird is more common now than they were 50 years ago. Osprey were decimated by DDT and habitat loss. But because of conservation efforts, people constructing nesting platforms and banning of DDT, we've been able to bring back this species. And so now they're very common on cell phone towers, on utility poles, across the Finger Lakes region, and so many other places in New York. So it's a great time to be outside. A great time to be seeing a very large bird of prey, the osprey.
Paul Szmal: And there's a couple of events that are coming up that we want to touch base on. One of them is actually a cyber event. There's an online auction happening right now.
Guest: Yeah, so we have our annual online auction going on, and that's connected to our annual benefit, which is coming up next Monday. But the online auction has been live since June 1st, and it goes through next Tuesday. So that's June 16th, a week from today. And the online auction closes at 5 p.m. We have a link on our website. Folks can go to Audubon.org slash Montezuma, click on the annual benefit link, and from there they'll get a link to our online auction. We have so many different items up for bid this year. There's about 45 different items, everything from birding excursions at Montezuma and over at Onondaga Lake. We've got overnight accommodations at the Inns of Aurora as well as Barrister's B&B. McKenzie Childs once again kicked in a birdhouse for us. We have a lot of photographs and beautiful bird quilts that have been contributed. And we also have tickets to various venues across the Finger Lakes region. Seabreeze Amusement Park over in Rochester. We've got tickets to Wayne Hills Country Club and Aquarium of Niagara as well. So a lot of opportunities to get some great items while supporting bird conservation work across the Finger Lakes region through the National Audubon Society. And really, this is open again through next Tuesday, so people have a lot more time to click on the link. They can place their bids very easily, and then we'll get in touch with the winners the following day on Wednesday, June 17th.
Paul Szmal: And by the way, that benefit on Monday, June the 15th, golfing and dinner tickets are sold out for that, but there are a few sponsorship opportunities available, and you can go to the Montezuma Audubon Center website and click on the annual benefit. You'll see those sponsorship opportunities listed. There's also an event coming up this Saturday. It's an on-the-road event at Fox Run Vineyards.
Guest: Fox Run is one of our newer partners. They're located down on Route 14 in Pen Yen, and really proud of this expansion of our winery partnerships here. We've got another Warblers, Wildflowers, and Wine event coming up this Saturday, 10 o'clock in the morning. It's just like all of our other winery events, a very multifaceted, exciting event for folks. First thing, we're going to be meeting up with one of the staff members at Fox Run Vineyards for a leisurely one-mile stroll around the vineyard, as well as their pollinator habitat that they have, so there'll be a lot of birds to explore. The staff members are going to be talking about the grape-growing process right there at Fox Run. Following that one-mile stroll, everyone's welcome to come inside the facility, and we've got a tour planned of the Fox Run wine cellar as well as the production facility. And then we're going to have, of course, wine and food pairings to choose from. The specialty chef there at Fox Run has got a great spread of food to go along with the amazing wines that will be available. And then after all of that, we do have a third component of this event, and once again, we're going to welcome Dana Ford from Braddock Bay Raptor Research, who will bring several live birds of prey for a presentation for our guests. And this is special just for our guests. This is not open to everyone else who might be at the vineyard. So you're going to get an up-close look at owls, hawks, falcons that are native to the Finger Lakes region, and these are birds that have been rehabbed, but due to their injuries, they can't be released back into the wild. So they've turned into ambassador birds and do a great job of helping to connect people to birds of prey and conservation opportunities that we have through National Audubon Society. This is a 21 and older event, and tickets are available on our website. Tickets for the entire event, which includes the wine, the tours, the live bird of prey presentations, just $45. And for designated drivers, without the wine and food experience, we have reduced tickets for just $35. And so again, that's coming up this Saturday, June 13th, 10 o'clock.
Paul Szmal: And to wrap things up this morning, Chris, we wanted to give a call out for volunteers to do some water chestnut removal.
Guest: Yeah, water chestnut, an invasive plant species in some of our aquatic ecosystems around the Montezuma Wetlands Complex. And so we're partnering once again with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on many Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout the summer months. Our next event is coming up tomorrow, Wednesday, June 10th, 9 a.m. We'll be down at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, hand-pulling the invasive water chestnut, improving the quality of habitat for birds, other wildlife, and of course, for the enjoyment of people. We have all the tools, the equipment necessary to do this. We'll have canoes, kayaks, personal flotation devices, and we'll explain why we remove water chestnut, how we do it, and why it's so important to do this very active habitat enhancement project around Montezuma and many other places in the Finger Lakes region. Folks can go to our website to register for tomorrow's event and all the other marsh habitat restoration projects we have coming up this summer. And that website is Audubon.org slash Montezuma, A-U-D-U-B-O-N dot O-R-G slash Montezuma.
Paul Szmal: Chris, it's a pleasure as always. Thank you, sir. We'll talk to you next month.
Guest: Thank you, Paul. It's always a pleasure.
