Crestwood Village 3/4--Chipping Sparrow

I took a long walk around the neighborhood despite the 17 degree temperature and the icy streets, more for the exercise than for the birding, though I always go out with the attitude that "you never know what will turn up." Nothing turned up. Nothing out of the ordinary, of course. There were lots of the common birds and they're starting to sing despite the cold and the 6 inches of snow. They're ready. I was about 3/4 of the way through my walk, listening to a couple of cardinals singing what sounds to me like "honey-bear honey-bear bear bear," when I spotted a male high up in a tree. I was thinking that I never get tired of seeing cardinals. I see them virtually every day and I always stop to look. Then I saw another bird fly in and saw that it was a Brown Creeper, another favorite, and not that common on the streets of Village 6.

I'd been walking quite a while and had sort of zoned out when I came across this feeder set up. It took me a moment to realize I'd walked as far as our friend Joan's house. I put my bins up and found a little sparrow with a clear chest and a rufous cap with a line through its eye and while my first thought was American Tree Sparrow, I've seen enough Chipping Sparrows to know when I've got my first one of the year.  Chippies are still listed as "rare" around here this time of year, though I've seen plenty of reports of late; plus we did have 4 of them in December on the Christmas Count, so it isn't like I just found a Labrador Duck.
I started to take some photos, but after two shots my memory card was full (stuffed full of Pine Warbler pix) so I wasn't able to get any closer than the picture above. Cropping and blowing it up we have:

Not much.

Speaking of Pine Warblers, here's the latest one that finally clogged up the works:

They love that peanut butter.

My 2 hour walk through Crestwood Villages 5 & 6 yielded:

21 species
Canada Goose  7
Mallard  1    Pond on Schoolhouse
Turkey Vulture  2
Mourning Dove  5
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2    Heard
Blue Jay  5
American Crow  1    Heard
Fish Crow  1    Heard
Carolina Chickadee  10
Tufted Titmouse  5
White-breasted Nuthatch  5
Brown Creeper  1
Carolina Wren  3
American Robin  10
Yellow-rumped Warbler  2
Chipping Sparrow  1    
Song Sparrow  5
Dark-eyed Junco  2
Northern Cardinal  5
House Finch  10
American Goldfinch  2