Vesper Sparrow, South Kingstown, Rhode Island, February 2014

RI is the toughest New England state for Vesper Sparrow because it is the only one of the 6 states where it does not nest.  As a result it is typically seen in RI just as a fall migrant and occasionally in winter, and is reported in very small numbers most years.  So although rather rare, it is still one of the more common birds that was missing from my RI state list.  The first time I chased after Vespers was fall 2013 when a couple birds were seen reliably at a weedy field in southern RI.  But by the time I was able to get there they were gone.  That same day I was also unsuccessful in chasing after a Lark Sparrow in CT, though I did get the Calliope Hummingbird in NH – that was quite a day!  So along with the fact that I needed it in RI to sweep the New England states, Vesper Sparrow had become a significant target for me.

Late on a Saturday in February there was an e-mail reporting that 2 Vesper Sparrows had been found feeding along the edge of Card’s Pond Road in South Kingstown.  That’s an exceptional sighting in mid-winter!  But would they stick around?  Sure enough, another e-mail came through on Sunday that the birds were still present midday, with a very specific location provided.  A few minutes later I was on the road heading to Card’s Pond Road. 

It was mid-afternoon when I arrived at the spot but saw no sparrows feeding along the road edge – in fact I saw no birds at all.  So I turned around and drove along that stretch of road again with my windows open hoping to hear some sparrow chip notes.  Within seconds I heard several chips, and quickly found a couple Savannah Sparrows perched in some shrubs near the road.  I hopped out and soon found many more Savannah Sparrows, coming to a feeding station – I estimated 40 Savannahs.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Savannah come to a feeder, let alone such a large flock.  Then I found a second feeder at the neighboring house, with White-crowns, White-throats and Songs.  There must have been at least 60 sparrows total.  And all of this activity was within 100 feet of the spot where the Vespers had been reported.  Several other birders arrived and we all thought that the Vespers would be mixed in with the other sparrows.  So we spent the next 45 minutes staring at this nice diverse group of birds, but with no signs of the Vespers.  At one point a small group of sparrows came out to feed on the road edge.  We got all excited but they were just Savannahs.  Had the Vespers moved on?

Then one of the birders noticed some activity farther down the road.  It was too far away for an ID using just binoculars, but they were 2 pale sparrows feeding along the road edge.  These could be our targets.  I quickly ran back to the car and got out my scope and seconds later knew we indeed had the pair of Vesper Sparrows.  We watched the birds for the next several minutes and were amazed to see how tame they were – cars would drive right by them and they wouldn’t fly.  Although we probably could have gotten closer, we kept our distance and I was able to get these two phone-scoped pictures.

Vesper Sparrow was number 311 for my RI list, and it is the 225^th species I’ve seen in each New England state.  And although this bird is seen across the US, I still need it in a number of states especially in the southeast (see my statebird map below).