Genesee Valley Peregrines

Hello All,

This past weekend was the Montezuma Muckrace, the 24 hour birding competition on the Refuge lands. In the past our fearless team has braved the elements and the mosquitoes to compete. This year due to an unusual sequence of events only Don and I were actually able to compete. Originally we decided not to compete, but our names were already on the tee-shirts and we had raised some money for it!! So we decided to go ahead and compete in honor our members and their families. This one was for you guys:))

We left work early Friday afternoon, and after gathering all the necessary gear, drove up to the refuge to scope out potential birds for our checklist. It was pleasant weather Friday, so we were able to locate a few good areas. Around 6 pm we completed all the registration activities and were ready to head off to where we wanted to be for the 7 pm race start.

We went to the Knox-Marcellus overlook. There were already 6 or 7 cars there, an indication this was a good choice. At 7 pm someone announced we could start! It was awesome, many birds started to fly in for the night, Sandhill Crane pairs, 4 species of Swallows, Bald Eagles, and more! Unfortunately the light goes quickly in the evenings now, and in dim light we drove to another pool to look for Green Herons and Bitterns. We were rewarded, though, as we watched both head off to their night roosts. We drove home in the dark, and discussed what our plan would be for the big day, Saturday. We were pleased to have 30 species checked off already.

Saturday morning we got up at 4 am and drove back to the refuge area. While driving we again discussed where to start and decided on Towpath Road where we should be able to locate lots of shore birds. We were concerned about the weather forecast though, potential straight line winds/tornadoes and heavy rain. Not good weather for being out birding!

We did not find the shore birds there we had hoped, so we headed off to the top spot for Warblers and Vireos, Howland Island. By the time we got there it was very windy and looked threatening, but we were sure we would locate the Warblers and Vireos. We assumed there would have been a fallout given the north winds. Evidently there was we heard later, but the winds were so severe that they were hunkered down out of sight! We only located 3 Warblers and 1 Vireo the entire competition!

We finally left Howland Island as the tree branches started to hit the car and the thought of the only road off the Island being blocked by downed trees! The storm was about to hit and we decided to ride it out on the Knox-Marcellus overlook ridge, where no trees could fall on us. At this point we had about 60 species on our checklist, given last year 5 of us located a total of 73, this was not bad.

We lost a bit of time riding out the storm, eating lunch, and getting a much needed bathroom break, but we were ready to resume the search. We returned to Towpath Road, as during our bathroom break someone mentioned seeing an American Avocet there. Yes, we spotted them!! There was actually a pair, and these are rare birds for this area! We also picked up a few other shorebirds we had not seen earlier.

Next we headed for the wild life drive at the refuge itself. We could usually see a PEREGRINE there, and sure enough, at the top of a tree on the drive was a thoroughly soaked juvenile Peregrine!!! Yeah!! We also saw both Blackbellied and American Golden Plovers, potential Peregrine food I suspect.

It was now about 4 pm and our count was up to 85! Could we reach 100?? I had hoped, but we had to find some birds and the weather was just not cooperating! We decided to go back to some of the impoundments we had checked earlier to see if anyone new had showed up. Yes, there had been a few newcomers!

We had to 7 pm, but at 6:30 we handed in our checklist with 92 species checked off and headed home, exhausted! I was a little bummed we couldn't hit 100, but last night we heard that the winning recreational team of 5 "top expert Ithaca birders" had 102 species!! I guess the Genesee Valley Peregrines had a respectable showing this year!

Suzanne in Ithaca

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