I finally got the two video clips of the pair of American Dippers that have been trying to nest just east of Canon City uploaded on my BirdsAndNature<http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com>blog. One shows both of the pair foraging together and grooming. The other clip shows one of the dippers with it's beak filled with nesting materials. After I scan towards the nest site too early, it shows this dipper flying to the site where they were building their nest on a ledge on the other side of a mechanical arm that moves a dam gate up and down. Both video clips are short but pretty good.
Though my initial concerns were what would happen when the dam gate was shut, it turned out there was a more ominous problem. Earlier yesterday I saw one of the dippers flying towards the nest site with food in it's bill. Since forays to bring nesting material to the site had diminished, I figured this was likely the male bringing food to the female who was already sitting on eggs. A little while later I saw on the dippers standing below the nest site, walking around and looking around without the usual purposeful behavior I have seen so I watched closely. Soon I saw a muskrat swim up to the bottom of the gate then climb behind the mechanical arm where the nest site was located. Less than 2 minutes later the muskrat came out from behind the mechanical arm and swam away. The dipper continued to walk about, looking about in a manner that would seem (maybe anthromorphically?) disturbed. As I watched for Black Phoebes that had been nearby I continued to glance over and started timing this unusual (disturbed?, not usual behavior) behavior which is kept up for several minutes, before I looked at my watch, and then 15 minutes! (sure seems like a disturbed bird) until the second dipper flew in nearby from somewhere else. The dipper by the gate flew over to where the other dipper had flown into, then I heard them vocalizing, again, maybe anthropomorphizing but they seemed to be communicating what had transpired as they both then flew to a gate next to the gate where the nest was located and flew up under the mechanical arm in that location---this sure looked like they went looking for another location to build another nest now that the first one was lost, albeit a terrible location since undoubtedly a muskrat would just raid the eggs again. The muskrat going into the nest site is interesting since last year I posted that this pair of dippers (seems likely to be the same pair as next closest dippers are miles away) appeared to be building a nest as I saw one carrying nesting material to the dam. However I never saw any further evidence of nesting such as the male bringing food to the female. Maybe they built in a mechanical arm or other bad location then too and a muskrat raided their nest. I am looking for signs of nest rebuilding. SeEtta Moss Canon City http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
