[TN-Bird] Chipping Sparrow in Winter in East Tennessee

Area birders,

I've read with interest the recent posts on Chipping Sparrow and thought 
I'd add my two cents' worth (which I hope is worth more than two cents 
:-) ).

I consider CHSP to be a species of special note in the six-county area 
on which I'm compiling information (Cocke, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, 
Hawkins, and Jefferson).  Rick Knight's The Birds of Northeast 
Tennessee: An Annotated Checklist describes the species as a summer 
resident that is "occasional" in winter in the five extreme northeastern 
counties.  My own limited winter birding in those counties leads me to 
agree with that, as I've found few Chippers.  However, I lean toward 
considering it a permanent resident in Greene County.  I have recorded 
many winter dates for it and believe it to be present year-round at 
Kinser Park and probably quite a few other low-elevation sites.  Other 
info I have found suggests that its abundance is probably clinal--sparse 
in northeast Tennessee shading to fairly common or common as one moves 
southwest toward Hamilton County.  As I comb through more records, I 
expect to find quite a bit of evidence of Chippers in winter in the 
six-county area I'm working on.  I suspect that "permanent resident" 
will be an accurate designation for this region.

I strongly agree with Dean Edwards' observations about habitat and 
patterns of occurrence.  When I'm out sparrowing in cold weather, I make 
a special point of looking for flocks of small birds in short-grass 
areas with scattered trees.  Sometimes such flocks turn out to be 
goldfinches or other birds, but often enough they are Chipping 
Sparrows.  There definitely seems to be a preference for open, 
short-grass habitat.  Often this kind of habitat is park-like or glade-like.

Keep those winter Chipping Sparrow reports coming!

Don Miller
Greeneville, Greene Co., TN
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