The ML Birders conducted their annual winter census on 01/15/2021 for the Lumberton Campus. The weather was hazy sun with temperature in the low to mid 40’s. The only modification we had to make to the old adage of “no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing” was the addition of the socially responsible mask.

Over the years the number of species seen has remained fairly constant ranging from a low of 30 to a high of 39 at Lumberton. The numbers fluctuate depending on various factors such as the weather, number of observers, availability of food for migrating birds and even the fickle nature the birds themselves. That is, you can bird an area one day and find it very productive and return the next day and find it very sparse. So what we are getting is a snapshot in time on our census day. However, birding an area on a regular basis and compiling our census data from year to year does give us some indications of how our local population is faring. The general consensus is that the woodland bird species remain diverse but their individual numbers are down at both campuses.

This year’s count at Lumberton yielded 39 species and 2,446 individuals. The most numerous were the Canada Geese that occupy Monarch Lake, which we include in our count since we can see it from our overlook. The lake also contains a fair number of ducks and other waterfowl. This year the Rancocas Creek has yielded only a few Mallards while in past years we had a nice number and diversity of duck species on the creek. The relatively mild winter to date might have kept ducks like the Common Mergansers north of our area, although they are showing up on the lake as January brings colder weather. We saw the two adult Bald Eagles that have been around all winter, but did not see the immature one with them that we saw on the Moorestown CBC in December. White-throated Sparrows remain the most numerous of the songbirds, and we did get a high count of Carolina Wrens (25). We also saw the elusive Winter Wren and got both the Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Notable misses and lows: Red-tailed Hawk and only 14 American Robins.

Participants: Dino Fiabane, Suzan and Mike Delozier, Holly Hoffman, Robert Koch, Laurie Larson, Pete McCord, Miriam Swartz and Jean Tindall. Feeder Data: Ann Campbell, Joe Costanza and Janet DeVry.