Towheeblog

A lone Vesper Sparrow was feeding alongside many Golden-crowned Sparrows at the Ashland Dog Park this morning. His overall paleness and eyering were very different than the look of the G-Cs. It is the first Vesper I’ve seen this spring and the only time I’ve seen them along Ashland Creek. Some do begin got drift back into Jackson County in late winter. The only nesting population in this county is in the meadows of the Cascades in the southeastern corner of Jackson County. There are Vesper Sparrows nesting in grasslands both in Umpqua and Willamette River Valleys further north. Most of the world’s Vesper Sparrows population is found in Great Basin and Great Plains habitat. Generally the Vesper Sparrow winters along the southern border of the U.S. and in Mexico.