Fellow Birders:
Rob Raker and I enjoyed watching 4 Dipper young leave the nest today.
The nest is inside one of the support beams with a rectangular opening
below the footbridge west of Skunk Hollow. Rob had some pictures he
took yesterday and it looked like there might be 4 young. When we
arrived around 7:30 a.m., the adults were flying up to the nest from
the rocks on the bank and feeding the young. I walked out on the
fallen tree to the middle of the creek where I could see the nest
inside the support beam, and when an adult flew up to the nest I saw
at least 3 mouths open wide. As we watched we noticed the adults
would fly into the beam with food, but would exit with the bug still
in their beak, fly down to the rocks below and call to the young. It
seemed like they were coaxing the young to follow them. After
watching this for some time, we then walked to the bridge so Rob could
shoot some photos from a different angle. As we were standing on the
bridge, I noticed two young dippers twisting and bobbing in the water
as they were carried downstream (my first thought was I was seeing
phalaropes before I had time for a better look). The two young exited
about 50 yards downstream. The youngsters could go under the water
and also could fly a short ways - across the creek was as far as we
saw the young fly. We saw the adults feed the youngsters - the
youngsters would be sitting on a rock or on a tree branch and open
their mouths wide when the adult landed next to them. One of the
adults then starting entering the nest as before, but she brought out
fecal sacs (6 - 8), sticks, and pieces of grass as if she were
cleaning house. Sometimes she would come just to the edge of the beam
and drop the grass or sticks, other times she would fly down to the
rocks, drop the material and wash her bill in the creek. We watched
this behavior for probably 30 minutes trying to figure out what she
was doing. When she flew down the creek, I went out on the log and
looked into the beam. The integrity of the nest seemed intact and I
couldn't see any young. Rob and I then started looking along the
shores of the creek to see if we could find more than the 2 young
dippers. We were able to locate 4 young ones after a great deal of
searching. Our take on the situation:
All 4 young exited the nest at the same time and jumped into the
water below - we only saw the last two.
Both adults helped in feeding the young, but one of the adults
also spent time cleaning out the nest.
Will the pairs of Dippers use the nest again and raise a 2nd
brood? The next couple of weeks should provide the answer.
All in all, an exciting morning. The young dippers spent a lot of
time sitting motionless (or in one spot dipping up and down),
but did make their way downstream. They would sometimes fly a short
distance, other times walk in the water along the edge of the creek.
They made a distinctive noise when the adults arrived with food.
Mike Henwood
Bear Creek Lake Park (BCLP) - Jefferson County
Morrison
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