This gallery are pictures from the second nest, I took them today.

I took a break late morning, for a snack and a recline. When I returned to the path to the river I saw a big black redhead, zip by. A Pileated Woodpecker, I said to myself. I didn't get a good look, it would have just been a good guess. Only saw a black body and redhead, nobody would believe me. At the end of the day, walking through a warm cedar grove, when I hear the woody call. I froze and started looking up all the tall trees; there he was straight ahead and fifty feet up a cedar.

Next to the day they fledged, this was the most exciting day I have had. First you need forget what I said about yesterday, the 6th. They have sort of paired up and the pair on the channel moved to the river, they were joined by a third, thirty minutes after I arrived. Where they were was a straight visual line to the second nest 50 to 60 meters away. I kept thinking the second mom was going to see them, right where the fledglings were is one of her favorite hunting spots. The male worked them back upriver. They were about 200 meters from their nest. During the day they all regrouped at the home roost.

I was following them around, up and down the river. the parents are quiding them around, for sure. They wander around, and explore, but the parents pull them further than they would on their own. I think dad knew how far to go, and he wanted the kids to go no further. Yesterday they looked like they might be splitting up for good, because of ideas I had read about, but they revolve they are every where, most of the time in pairs, and often alone. They have become very self sufficient, and confident. I saw two have a pecking fight.

I kept thinking all day about when and if the first brood meets the second. I was at the second nest three time today, the third time was 12:30 PM. She was feeding her nestlings as usual, but this time there was something different, I moved down river of nest #2 to get a better look at the nest. !5 feet down from the nest there was a fledgling standing on a thick root. Could they be fledging today? No. It was one of the first brood. I watched her feed it four times and feeding her own between the fledgling feedings. I watched the fledgling and its step mother for 30 minutes, before the fledgling flew up river. Everything that is unique with dipper behavior is happening with these two dipper families. A polygamist male; fledglings that cross over to another nesting territory and being fed by another mother (it is going to happen, tomorrow too).

I have to watch myself with them now they are going to downed trees in the river, and moving up and down the river minim of 100 yards each way from roost, they see me coming from a distance, whereas the first days I was always close by. They show a little agitation on occasion and I just wait for them to calm down or wait for them to come to me. They have all flown past me only a couple feet away, and as dippers do only inches off the water.

The sun shined all day, was it the first of the year?

http://e-picturebookdesigners.com/walks/fledge4/

Don Wallace
Sequim
don at e-picturebookdesigners.com