Subject: [Tweeters] American Dipper Foraging in Still Water (no,
Date: Feb 12 07:43:05 2009
From: Lyn Topinka - pointers at pacifier.com
hi ... I ran into this situation in early January after the big snows
and meltout ... there was a pair of Dippers actively feeding in a
backwater slough near Round Lake/Lacamas Lake just east of Vancouver,
Washington. No "running water" in sight ... in fact, very quiet
still and the water was a bit murky ... the Dippers were flitting
from log to log, submerging heads, but they were also diving down too
... always seemed to find grubs ... this was one of the last places I
would have expected to find Dippers.
Lyn
At 12:02 AM 2/12/2009, johntubbs at comcast.net wrote:
>Hi everyone,
>
>Earlier this week, while doing volunteer work in the Cedar River
>watershed for one of their wildlife biologists, I observed unusual
>(at least to me) behavior by an American Dipper. My experience and
>everything I recall reading about them has them as denizens of
>moving water - streams - particularly mountain streams or at least
>streams with generally clear water since they forage underwater by
>sight. Well, I came across a Dipper actively foraging along a lake
>shore. The bird was hopping about on partially submerged sticks and
>other lakeside vegetation, picking underwater but generally only by
>submerging its head - I didn't see it actually full submerge as the
>birds do in streams.
>
>Is this behavior very rare, as it is in my experience, or have I
>just not had occasion to run across it before?
>
>I wondered if this behavior might be related to the recent floods,
>which had very noticeable effects on the small feeder creeks to the
>Cedar River - several had been heavily scoured out by the
>water. This scouring action could have adversely affected the
>aquatic insect life on the stream beds, causing the bird to go
>looking for food elsewhere, I suppose.
>
>John Tubbs
>Snoqualmie, WA
Lyn Topinka
http://EnglishRiverWebsite.com
http://ColumbiaRiverImages.com
http://RidgefieldBirds.com