eBird checklist: Charles Hathcock records 18 species at Lordsburg Sewage Ponds

A single-observer eBird submission from Lordsburg Sewage Ponds in Hidalgo County recorded 18 species during a 52-minute, 1.83 mile outing that began in clear, mild conditions. The checklist, submitted by owner Charles Hathcock at 1:41 PM on 27 Jan 2026, was filed as a traveling, complete checklist and included weather noted as "54°F at start, no clouds, wind <5."

The checklist metadata reads: "Full checklist details (as submitted): Date/time: 27 Jan 2026, 1:41 PM. Location: Lordsburg Sewage Ponds, Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Protocol: Traveling, complete checklist. Observers: 1 (owner: Charles Hathcock). Duration: 52 minutes; Distance: 1.83 mi. Weather: 54°F at start, no clouds, wind <5." The title provided with the submission explicitly states "(18 species)"; the supplied materials do not include a species list or individual counts beyond that total.

Accessing the checklist page also surfaced a site-protection interstitial, underscoring a growing tension between open citizen science and digital content controls. The page displayed the text "Protected by Anubis from Techaro. Made in Canada." and instructions that "Please note that Anubis requires the use of modern JavaScript features that plugins like JShelter will disable. Please disable JShelter or other such plugins for this domain." The interstitial frames its purpose as a proof-of-work compromise intended to slow large-scale scraping, stating that "Anubis uses a Proof-of-Work scheme in the vein of Hashcash" and warning that a no-JS solution is "a work-in-progress."

For Hidalgo County residents, the checklist matters both as a recreational record and as a piece of grassroots environmental monitoring. Observations at sewage ponds can feed local understanding of waterfowl activity, habitat use, and broader environmental conditions that intersect with public health concerns such as water quality and vector ecology. Community-collected data help county officials, conservation groups, and public-health partners track changes over time, particularly in under-resourced areas where formal monitoring may be limited.

The presence of an anti-scraping barrier raises equity and access questions. Requiring modern JavaScript, disabling privacy tools, or imposing proof-of-work can block users with older devices, limited bandwidth, or privacy-focused settings, and may limit researchers and local agencies trying to pull records for health or environmental surveillance. Those digital barriers risk concentrating access among better-resourced users while excluding community contributors who often provide the earliest on-the-ground signals of environmental change.

This checklist is a reminder that local observations are a public good and that technical choices about data access have real effects on who participates and who benefits. The next step for readers and local agencies is to obtain the full species details from the checklist and to consider how Hidalgo County can support equitable access to citizen-science data as platforms tighten protections against automated scraping.