Harris’s Sparrow, Warren Wilson College, Buncombe County, North Carolina, December 31, 2023

This post came across the local Blue Ridge Birders text group late on December 20th –

       Perfect photo of a Harris’s Sparrow from a checklist today Warren Wilson

I opened the eBird checklist and there it was - a photo of a Harris’s Sparrow at Warren Wilson College, one of my favorite local birding spots.  What a great rarity to chase!  The problem was I was away on a family vacation at the time.  However, I’ve chased quite a number of vagrant Harris’s Sparrows over the years and in most cases birds discovered in winter have remained for an extended period of time.  So I was hopeful this bird would stick around too, at least until the afternoon of the 31st which would be my first opportunity to try for it.

Perhaps the bigger issue was being able to re-find the bird.  The checklist for the initial sighting didn’t provide a specific location, instead just stating the location as “river trail by fields”.  Plus the birder covered a 6-mile-long distance over 3 hours, which was no help as well.  In fact, the River Trail at Warren Wilson is many miles long, and is adjacent to fields in many locations.  But despite what seemed like a long shot, quite a number of birders descended on Warren Wilson the next day, and indeed the bird was re-found and seen by many. 

But the Harris’s location wasn’t pinned down quite yet.  Over the next several days the bird was re-spotted in multiple locations throughout the property, and often associating with different sparrow flocks in those different locations.  As a result, several birders needed multiple visits to find the bird, and others weren’t able to see the bird at all in those initial days.

Then finally on the 30th came the break we all needed.  The local Buncombe County Christmas Bird Count was on that day, and Warren Wilson College was in the count circle.  What a great species to try to add to the CBC tally!  John Koon covered that territory for the count and we were all hopeful he could locate it that day.  And sure enough, John sent out this text that morning –

        Harris’s Sparrow!  In the pigpen past the green pond with a bunch of WCSP and RW blackbirds.  Good looks.

Several others saw the Harris’s there that day.  So maybe this could become the bird’s preferred location.

I had committed to do another CBC on the 31st so couldn’t try for the Harris’s Sparrow until I had completed my territory.  While out counting that morning I checked the reports and the sparrow was once again spotted in the pigpen area of Warren Wilson.  I was cautiously optimistic.

After completing my territory, I drove to the closest public parking spaces to Warren Wilson (at Owen Park), arriving about 12:30.  From there I headed straight to the pigpen area, which even at a brisk pace took 15 minutes or more.  When I arrived, there were 2 birders near the pond – they said they hadn’t found the target bird but there was another birder down the trail also looking.  A minute later I met up with that third birder and he too hadn’t found the bird.  But just then I noticed a lot of movement in one of the pens in the distance – it was a large flock of White-crowns.  Seconds later the other birder said he had the bird.  In a split second I spotted the Harris’s Sparrow feeding on the ground, apparently eating grain spilled from the adjacent feeding trough.  The bird was only in view for about 10 seconds before the whole flock took off into the adjacent brush.  I waited another hour or more for it to return but the sparrow flock seemed to have moved farther down the hedgerow in the distance and did not return.  Here’s a picture of the pig pen area - the Harris’s was in the back of the pen near the blue X.

Good thing I didn’t stop to bird along the walk or I would have missed my target bird.  And I felt a little bad for that other birder.  Apparently it took him 3 days to see the Harris’s Sparrow, yet I was able to see it literally within seconds of arriving. 

Harris’s Sparrow was #325 for my NC state list. 

My statebird map for Harris’s Sparrow is copied in below.  The blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range.  The cross-hatched states are those in its normal range where I’ve yet to see it.  And the brown-shaded states are those where I’ve seen Harris’s Sparrow as a rarity.  This species is certainly prone to vagrancy – I’ve now seen it in more states as a vagrant than in its regular range.