{"id":16669,"date":"2026-01-22T13:35:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/?p=16669"},"modified":"2026-03-21T18:44:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T22:44:24","slug":"lumberton-campus-27th-winter-bird-census-january-21-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/lumberton-campus-27th-winter-bird-census-january-21-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Lumberton Campus 27th Winter Bird Census, January 21, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Lumberton Campus 27th Winter Bird Census, January 21, 2026<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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For the 2026 Lumberton Census, the weather was actually very nice. Cold to be sure (13\u00b0 when we started) but, dressed for it and with virtually no wind, it was a nice walk through the trails and around the perimeter path. The best birding in terms of numbers was on the Rancocas Creek. It was frozen over in the morning with a few spots of open water. Canada Geese were there in large numbers up and down the creek (800-1,000 estimated). Ten Black Ducks were visible on the shoreline just downstream from the end of the Rancocas Trail. Only 13 Ring-billed Gulls were walking on the ice in the morning; I went back around 1 PM at low tide and the Ring-bills were there in numbers up and down the creek, conservative estimate of 100+. Most of the morning’s geese had headed to other places. The only ducks I saw were more Black Ducks and Mallards, downstream from the end of the trail. I could easily pick out the Mallard Drakes from a great distance but I could not really distinguish between the female Mallards and the Black Ducks without a scope. In total there were probably over 100 Mallards and Black Ducks combined. We saw no other duck species.<\/p>

The land birds were sparse in the woods and more abundant along the perimeter path. We did not even see a Downy Woodpecker in the morning but I did get one as I was coming back from my afternoon walk. There were two adult Bald Eagles (Holly had 2 adults and an immature yesterday down by the lake) and three Turkey Vultures. American Robins were in clusters in trees and on the ground — an estimate of 250+ is reasonable. A nice flock of Grackles flew into trees on the other side of Creek Road by the Wood Shop.\u00a0<\/p>

– Robert Koch<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Lumberton Data:
Paticipants: Robert Koch, Holly Hoffman, Sam Madeira, Dino Fiabane, Ann Campbell, Laurie Larson.
Species: 32
Indiv: 3918
Date: Jan. 21, 2026
Time: 8 AM – 3 PM
Weather: Temperature about 10 F\u00b0 at 8 AM rising to about 20 later; snow about 1 inch. Calm, clear sky. Lake partly frozen, Rancocas Creek (tidal) open. Excellent berry and fruit crops<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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List: 32 Species, 3918 individuals<\/p>

Canada Goose 3088
American Black Duck 20
Mallard 19
Common Merganser 14
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 3
Bald Eagle (Ad) 2
Ring-billed Gull 100
Mourning Dove 6
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 8
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 2
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 15
Carolina Chickadee 6
Tufted Titmouse 14
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 8
Eastern Bluebird 1
American Robin 322
Northern Mockingbird 6
European Starling 7
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 37
Dark-eyed Junco 72
Northern Cardinal 10
Red-winged Blackbird 6
Common Grackle 77
Brown-headed Cowbird 4
House Finch 60
American Goldfinch 4<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t<\/i>Prev<\/span><\/span>Previous<\/span>Medford Leas 39th Annual Winter Bird Census January 14 2026<\/span><\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tNext<\/span>Salem County, March 18, 2026<\/span><\/span><\/i>Next<\/span><\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cold to be sure (13\u00b0 when we started), but with virtually no wind, it was a nice walk through the trails and around the perimeter path. Monarch Lake was partly frozen and hosted thousands of geese. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16669"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16767,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16669\/revisions\/16767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlra.org\/MLBirders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}