Last night I introduced you to an American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus). I spent quite a bit of time watching and trying to learn more about this unusual songbird, and struggling with somewhat challenging conditions for photography (very dark lighting).
A description I read in the Birds of the World account online mentioned that the dipper's plumage has "earth tones," but I might adjust that slightly to say that it has "stream tones." The dipper's brown and gray and blue coloration were a perfect match for the colors and reflections in the water. Sometimes the dipper looked like water, other times like leaves, or rocks, or shadows. Here are a few more photos from yesterday's visit. [You can click on them for larger versions.]
The plumage is amazingly waterproof. Note the smooth water flow over and around the dipper as it submerged its head and actively searched for prey:
I'm still processing a couple of audio files of the dipper singing, but I'll try to share those soon, too.
6 comments:
As a fly fisherman, I see Dippers often and have witnessed them walk completely under water searching for insect larvae. Only once have I seen a nest. It was tucked behind a small waterfall.
I enjoyed observing the Eurasian Dipper at Lake Baikal in Siberia! If I’m not mistaken, there’s a local story about THIS bird’s wagging tail breaking up the ice in the Spring!
http://orientalbirdimages.org/photographers.php?action=birderimages&Bird_Image_ID=116641&Birder_ID=1650
Wonderful series of a "longed for" bird!
This is a "local" sighting. You didn't have to go to the mountains!
Thank you so much. I feel like I'm there with the dipper!
Sue
I've seen the dipper many times in the Sierra and Yosemite streams. But your "Stream tones" series of the bird in low light are by far the most beautiful photos of the bird that I have ever seen. They deserve a much wider audience.
The ouzel was John Muir's favorite bird:
"He is the mountain streams' own darling, the humming-bird of blooming waters, loving rocky ripple-slopes and sheets of foam as a bee loves flowers, as a lark loves sunshine and meadows. Among all the mountain birds, none has cheered me so much in my lonely wanderings, --none so unfailingly. For both in winter and summer he sings, sweetly, cheerily, independent alike of sunshine and of love, requiring no other inspiration than the stream on which he dwells. While water sings, so must he, in heat or cold, calm or storm, ever attuning his voice in sure accord; low in the drought of summer and the drought of winter, but never silent."
All quotes taken from The Mountains of California, Chapter 13, by John Muir, 1894
These are beautiful photos--I especially like the one of the water sheeting over the dipper's back. I saw a nest a few years ago, tucked up under a little pedestrian bridge over a creek in the Tetons.
Hi, all!
Thanks so much for your comments and feedback! I really loved the time with the dipper and I'm so glad some of the photos came out (many of them didn't!). I might have a few more to show, along with audio clips, so stay tuned.
:) Jackie
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