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 =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the count in which the birds you report were seen. The actual date of observation should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp _____________________________________________________________