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Though Mike has already put up a post about our Montezuma Muckrace experience so much happened during the loooong day of birding that there is plenty more to post.  It was a great day and Will, Jory and Mike were tenacious teammates: it’s unusual for four people, much less birders, to be in a somewhat [...]

This weekend two-thirds of the 10,000 Birds triumvirate participated in the 12th Annual Montezuma Muckrace. I’m pleased to report that we lived to tell the tale. Corey and I, accompanied by ace birders Jory Langner and Will Raup, ushered in a shining new era of competitive Big Day birding, the debut of the 10,000 Birds [...]

That’s right, for the first time ever 10,000 Birds will field a team in a birding competition!  The annual Montezuma Muckrace, scheduled for the end of next week, will be our inaugural event.  We can’t wait!  Our squad, composed of four guys hoping not to make fools of ourselves of the finest birders in New York [...]

When one thinks of Western New York, seabirds don’t immediately spring to mind. However, terns, sandpipers, plovers, and the like don’t mind drifting hundreds of miles from the seashore, particularly to lands rich with lakes. The corridor between Rochester and Syracuse apparently suits shorebirds just fine since Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge is renowned for its [...]

The Core Team just returned from a great long weekend in the Finger Lakes; the fun we have actually makes the four hours in transit each way worthwhile. It also helps that Lake Skaneateles is just a stone’s throw away from the magnificent Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. Seth and I try to drop in at [...]

The early bird gets the worm and the early birder gets the birds. Once again awakening before dawn this morning, I met Zack in the parking lot of my apartment complex and after we loaded up my car with his gear we went and got Will and headed west. Our destination? The amazing marshes of [...]

My first bird sighting of the new year was a raucous murder of crows, which might have seemed ominous were it not so commonplace. One likes to start a new year (and year list) off right to set the appropriate tone for the coming months. The Core Team spent the last days of December in [...]

This weekend found the endlessly traveling Core Team at Lake Skaneateles in the Finger Lakes visiting Seth and Christine and her family. This annual pilgrimage to Skaneateles is always one of the high points of our summer. Not only do we enjoy the pleasures of the lake and its surrounding towns, along with the [...]

This weekend, the Core Team motored up to the Finger Lakes in our brand new Subaru Outback to see Seth and Christine. Christine’s family has a camp on one of the lakes. Although most of the Finger Lakes have odd names, Skaneateles must be the strangest one. The name Skaneateles, pronounced “skinny atlas,” is derived [...]