American Dipper – Naturalist Minute Ep. 1
The American Dipper is the enigma of the songbirds…it swims and dives for its food. Living on the wildest of mountain streams, American Dipper is uniquely at home in the torrent. The Dipper has an extra translucent eyelid for seeing underwater. The Dipper’s feathers are water repellent, and it flies, yes FLIES, underwater. The dipper uses its wings as fins when it dives to the stream bottom in search of aquatic invertebrates. Please subscribe/rate/review More Than Birds via iTunes Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Read MoreAmericans Dippers gathering nest material
Short film and images of American Dippers gathering moss for their nest, which is located underneath a bridge that spans rattlesnake Creek in Greenough Park. Notice that the birds are consistently dunking the nesting material, namely moss. The wetting is thought to keep the moss alive and, therefore, more pliable. The American Dipper nest is ideally placed under a cliff overhang or bridge that is above the home range stream. The nest itself is a large (~1 foot), mossy dome, which consists of an outer shell of moss and grass, and interior cup is made of grass, bark stripes, and leaves. The...
Read MoreAbove the surface of the heavier music of the water
The Ouzel never sings in chorus with other birds, nor with his kind, but only with the streams. And like flowers that bloom beneath the surface of the ground, some of our favorite’s best song-blossoms never rise above the surface of the heavier music of the water. – John Muir from The Mountains of California They have always fascinated me as to how they possibly survive in such a harsh environment. American Dippers live in conditions that no other songbird can survive. Most of the boulder-strewn stretches of streams in Montana have a resident pair or two of American Dippers. They song...
Read More8 wolves and 1 cooperative moose
On Saturday, Non-Birding Vida and I went to Yellowstone to see if we could find some wolves. Vida had never seen a wolf, so I had a mission in life. We entered the park at 7 AM, and we proceeded toward the Lamar Valley. Upon the entering the valley, everything was still and quiet. Just a few bison bulls in the distance and not much else, save for the backside of a lone coyote. We cruised the valley twice without a wolf sighting. Heading east toward Soda Butte, I spied a form atop a ridge. There he was, the alpha male from the newly named christened Silver Pack. Loping through the...
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