Not December 3rd in this case, but January 3rd ... and not in eBird, but
in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count database:
Cheryl Whelchel found a Vesper Sparrow for the Airlie CBC on January 3,
2009, while covering the American Bottom area southeast of Independence (
in Polk County).
http://www.midvalleybirding.org/pipermail/birding/2009-January/002482.html
There are quite a few older CBC records from Oregon, many of those from
the month of December. The report of 62 on the Eugene CBC during 1955-56
is likely an error but the reports of smaller numbers in the range 1-3
seem more plausible. Back when this species was much more abundant as a
nesting bird in the Willamette Valley, it seems reasonable that a few
might have been found hanging around into December.
Nice to see that Aaron managed to get a photo of the Sauvie Island bird,
showing the legs well enough that we can see it was unbanded. Looks kind
cool-toned compared with the subspecies that nests in western Oregon and
Washington ("Oregon" Vesper Sparrow, proposed for ESA listing). So my
guess is that this bird is from one of the other subspecies that nest
east of the Cascades -- though it's not always safe to assign Vespers
to subspecies based on photos.
Joel
On Tue, 3 Dec 2019 Brodie Cass Talbott wrote:
Nice find! I was discussing this sighting with some unrepentant Columbia
county listers, and it is quite a sighting for December. On eBird, there
are only two other December records for Vesper Sparrow in Oregon, one by
Mike Patterson in Clatsop County in 2014, and the other at Fern Ridge by
Sylvia Maulding in 2016. Interestingly, all three records were on December
3rd.
