A trio of mockingbird fledglings spend some time in a water locust tree that grows from a spring on my folk’s farm. The mockingbirds actually were a brood that hatched in our back yard in Illinois, where they frequented the clothesline to do their exercising and became quite tame, allowing me to sketch them. But as that old clothesline setup wasn’t very interesting, it seemed to me they would probably look a lot more interesting if they were depicted on a water locust instead, and I had one in mind that grew out of a spring on my folk’s place in Missouri. So here they are, perched in a water locust, breaking in those brand new wings before gaining their independence.