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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Saturday, October 24, 2009 Dippers are fascinating, swimming songbirds Moving to Western Washington from Maryland a few decades ago opened up a different ecosystem for me, although it was a give-and-take situation. Hello American dipper, Steller’s jay, tufted puffin and ancient murrelet. Goodbye whip-poor-will, great crested flycatcher, red-bellied woodpecker and mockingbird. Hello Northern pygmy owl, California quail (goodbye bobwhite) and blue grouse. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the bird that flies under water, the American dipper, also called the water dipper, water thrush and water ouzel. I had hiked along fast-moving mountain creeks and rivers, but once finding out about the dipper, I began to look for the slate-gray bird with its short slanted-up tail. The dipper was John Muir’s favorite bird. He often mentioned their songs and behaviors, once saying that they never failed to cheer him in his lonely wanderings. Sophie Osborn, wildlife biologist for the Wyoming Outdoor Council and author of “Condors in Canyon Country,” focused her master’s thesis on the American dipper. “They’re extraordinary. I was surveying stream edges, and the current was so incredibly strong that when I stepped in, I was almost whipped downstream. But the dipper dove in and came out, often in the same place it had gone in.” It’s the only fully aquatic songbird in North America, foraging for aquatic invertebrates while fascinating birders. “When I was studying them, I was amazed that so many people would say, ‘Oh! They’re one of my favorite birds.’ That’s the kind of sentiment usually reserved for big raptors or colorful cardinals,” Osborn said. The dipping is almost constant, a behavior learned in the nest. It dips when singing, when warning off others and between dives. Researchers have clocked the dip rate at 40 to 60 dips a minute and have theorized that dipping might help dippers stay oriented in the constantly changing visual field of a quickly moving river. The smaller-than-a-starling dipper has an oil gland on overdrive, one about 10 times larger than other songbirds’ oil glands. It needs it to waterproof its feathers for the underwater excursions. A translucent third eyelid covers the eyes, a flap seals its nose, and a down “jacket” under the feathers protects against the cold water. Dippers forage along stream edges, standing on rocks and dipping their heads under water for easy-to-reach larvae, usually of flying stream insects. The dipper’s best trick is to dive, taking up to 30 seconds to hunt, sometimes turning pebbles over in its search and gripping rocks with long toes. Because the dipper does not have webbed feet, the feet are basically useless for propulsion once they drive the bird off the bottom. The wings kick in so that the bird can “fly” upstream. Dippers are found year-round in Western Washington, at home in mountainous areas and forested lowlands wherever there are fast-moving rivers and streams. Even their flight paths follow the water. Their year-round lively, bubbly calls and songs are exceptionally loud so that they can be heard over the sound of rushing water. During her thesis work, Osborn found 49 elaborate, mossy dipper nests built on ledges in 140 miles of stream bank on 23 creeks. She’s seen fledglings jump into the water that tumbles them like a washing machine might toss a glove. Inevitably, though, they pop out downstream and swim to shore. Eventually the biologist found an unusual search method, one that you might use, too. “I found the easiest way to find them was to look under bridges over fast-flowing streams with ripples and rocks.” Go figure. Welcome back: Several thousand snow geese have been seen in the Fir Island area, and a few hundred more in the Stanwood area. About 80,000 snow geese winter in Western Washington. Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

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