The 2023 Montezuma Muckrace took place on September 8-9th this year. The Muckrace, a fundraising event in which teams compete to find the most bird species within the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, takes place annually with this year being the 26th such event. 31 teams took part this year with a total of 150 participants. They took part in several different categories ranging from competitive, recreational, and collegiate, to family, youth, photo, and low carbon (no motorized vehicle use). A total of $11,082 was raised to support projects within the Complex.
The Winners
Top teams in each category include:
- Competitive team: Off the Virginia Rails – 134 species
- Collegiate: Cornell Muckmasters- 141 sp.
- Recreational: The Hawkeyes- 113 sp.
- Family/Mentor: Van Heron- 96 sp
- Low Carbon: Terns and Conditions- 60 sp.
- Youth: Chirpe Diem- 24 sp.
Top Fundraising Teams
Fellowship of the Wing: $1910
Arrogant Bustards: $1784
Bleary-eyed Vireos: $1535
Interesting Tidbits
Grand total of species seen
Number of campers at the MAC
Record Streak
Comments from evening event
Students not familiar with the complex amazed at how extensive the marshes are
Seeing a Long-eared Owl on Howland Island
Nice to have a time when the mosquitos on Howlands Is were tolerable instead of inhaling them with each breath
Seeing the cloud of 100,000+ swallows in the air over the marsh
Thank You!
As always we would like to thank our many dedicated volunteers who helped to make the Muckrace a success. Staffing the desk at the MAC during different shifts were: Sue March, Dave Fitch, Don & Ruth Kalen, Ken Pollard, Ellen Reynolds, and Sabrina Megali. T-shirt design was provided by Jody Benedict (a beautiful rendition of a black tern feeding a chick!) and Woman Made Products in Seneca Falls produced the t-shirts. T-shirt sorting was done by Kyle Gage. Susan DiCriscio was the volunteer photographer. Chuck Gibson picked up and delivered the many pizzas for the after-event wrap-up at the MAC. Mike & JoAnn Tetlow and Mark Brown were our checklist verifiers/compilers.
We greatly appreciate everyone’s efforts towards making the Muckrace run smoothly for participants!