Went to Morrison today to see if I could find a singing dipper. (Hwy 74 is closed, so I couldn't go up to Lair o'the Bear). Found a dipper at the entrance to Morrison Park (right by the gauging structure). He did a fair amount of "zeet"s and once uttered the start of a song. I was able to watch him for a very long time, since he hardly budged from the site. He seemed extremely successful at finding food, since he brought up tiny black things every time he dived. Even though I was only 12' away with 8x42's, I couldn't tell if it was animal or vegetable, but I assume the former. I finally walked on, and when I came back an hour later he was still at the same spot. Possibly the way the ice was formed it served as a trap for food being washed downstream?
On Tuesday, February 2, 2021 at 9:28:41 PM UTC-7 [email protected] wrote: > Interesting to read Jeff's report about dippers singing on the Big > Thompson river. > Later this afternoon, as we were returning to the parking lot at South > Platte park, we watched the American Dipper that frequents the river under > the C470 bridge. After watching it pick at insects and an old Starbucks > cup wrapper, the dipper started spontaneously singing it's beautiful song, > which raised our curiosity. According to David Sibley's Guide to Bird Life > and Behavior, both sexes of Dippers sing all year long, with a peak early > in breeding season. Song establishes breeding territories in the spring, > and winter territories in the fall and winter. Fun to know! > Cheryl Teuton > Aurora > > > > Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/9325eaef-34b3-443b-aa8d-280c45160f64n%40googlegroups.com.
