Richard's comment below that Chipping and White-crowned Sparrows "/seem 
to be getting commoner [in winter in Vermont]/" prompted me to see what 
the eBird data show.

2012 is a good beginning date for data analyses such as this in Vermont 
using eBird.  In 2012 there were 28,346 checklists submitted.  By 2020 
there were 72,415 checklists for the year, more than two-and-a-half 
times as many checklists as in 2012.  That's a lot more birding!  Might 
that have an effect on the number of sparrows being reported?

Keeping in mind the significant increase of birding over time, here are 
the numbers of Chipping Sparrows and White-Crowned Sparrows reported 
state-wide each year during the months of January and February.

Chipping Sparrow
2012   1
2013   1
2014   0
2015   0
2016   0
2017   0
2018   1
2019   4
2020   8

White-Crowned Sparrow
2012   0
2013   3
2014   0
2015   3
2016   1
2017   1
2018   2
2019   4
2020   1

If you normalize for the number of checklists, Chipping Sparrow still 
shows an increase in the last two years. Time will tell if it is a trend.

The sum of the number of White-Crowned Sparrows in the first four years 
is 6, and in the most recent four years is 8. That is an increase of 33% 
which lags well behind the increase in birding effort.  So it might be 
the case that this species is not increasing in numbers.

Good birding all!

Ian











On 1/11/2021 12:06 PM, Richard Littauer wrote:
> They seem to be getting commoner.
>
> Both of the Chipping Sparrows should be reported to the VBRC
> <https://vtecostudies.org/wildlife/wildlife-watching/vbrc/bird-checklists/>.
> Any Chipping Sparrow before the fourth week of March is notable. Last year,
> there was one here in Montpelier, hopping about around now.
>
> Best,
> R
>
> On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 11:30 AM Sue Wetmore <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> I had a chipping sparrow here in my yard yesterday.
>> Sue Wetmore
>> Brandon
>>
>> Sent from my iPod
>>
>>> On Jan 11, 2021, at 11:28 AM, David Guertin <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>> Today we had a Chipping Sparrow make a suprise appearance at our feeder
>> here in Cornwall, preceded yesterday by a White-crowned Sparrow. These
>> birds are common enough during migration and summer (for the Chippy at
>> least), but I don't think I've ever seen either one in mid-winter, and now
>> we've had both in two days. So take a second look at those LBJs -- you
>> never know what you'll find!
>>> Dave G.
>