Chipping Sparrow, Chicory ~ "Faithful Companion" ~ "Songbirds & Friends" ~ Watercolor Shorebird This painting catches the robin's

This painting catches the robin's characteristic tilt of the head

streaked flanks

Not ferocity — mastery

the warbler half-hidden among the Indian hemp

Chipping Sparrow, Chicory ~ "Faithful Companion" ~ "Songbirds & Friends" ~ Watercolor Shorebird This painting catches the robin'sThe Chipping Sparrow is the small, neat bird that shows up in dooryards and gardens everywhere rusty cap, clean gray breast, a long dry trill of a song running through the warm afternoons. It is nobody's idea of a rare find, and that is exactly why I love it: a faithful companion to ordinary days, always there, always singing. I gave it chicory, the sky blue flower that lines the same roadsides these sparrows haunt, opening fresh each morning. The two