[TN-Bird] Savannah Sparrow (Greene Co., TN)

  • From: Don Miller <raincrow@xxxxxxx>
  • To: Bristol-birds <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, TN-Bird <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 09:06:31 -0400

Area birders,

Wallace's post on Savannah Sparrow is important news.

In addition to the counties he lists that have a "handful of records," it should also be noted that Savannah Sparrow has been found regularly in summer in small numbers in Greene County for at least the last decade or so. I consider it a permanent resident here, with its greatest abundance occurring in winter. My records in summer lead me to code it as "occasional."

Don Miller
Greeneville, TN


Area Birders:

A Savannah Sparrow was found singing on territory Tuesday (6/28), establishing a new breeding season species for Sullivan County, TN.

Dave Worley and I discovered the bird singing from a fence post on a hilltop (1620 ft. elevation) at the PowerLine Farms located on Pemberton Rd. in Holston Valley just off U.S. 421 hwy. This is normally a higher elevation nesting species.

It is a rare summer species over most of our region. It has expanded southward through the mountains into Johnson Co. since 1991. There are a handful of records in Carter, Washington, Hawkins and Cocke counties in Tennessee.

As far as I know, it occurs during the breeding season in just a few Virginia counties, among them Wythe, Smyth, Washington, Grasyon, Tazewell and Wise counties.

If anyone has other records or distribution information please post it to this list.

Let's go birding......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN

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