Whooo’s Out There? Do the Dip!
Even now, as the winter chill starts to take over the autumn colors, I sit out by a mountain stream each week to just listen, and hear what the birds and water have to say.
These days there aren’t many other critters around, except the Dipper.
I sit in my 1968 REI down coat, basking in the sun, as the coatless dipper walks in the freezing creek shallows looking for lichen, bugs and whatever else she can find to fill her crop.
They are aptly named as she does her little Dippin Dance almost perpetually. And every once in a while she’ll go for a swim and act like a duck!
Why Dippers dip is still truly unknown (people keep asking them but they haven’t responded yet :) There are three basic theories: 1. The dipping helps them see their prey (aquatic insects and larvae), under the rushing water, 2. It protects them from potential predators and 3. Bobbing up and down is a form of communication to other Dippers. From what I’ve seen I think it’s the first theory, I see them bobbing when no one else is around.
I’ve seen these wondrous birds go under waterfalls, walking on ice, and stepping between slippery rocks. Dippers don’t have webbed feet like most water-loving birds, but they do have long legs and sharp claws that allow them to grip rocks in swift water and ice on cold winter days.
Other adaptations that allow Dippers to easily move through mountain streams are short, strongly muscled wings that can be used as flippers underwater. (Makes me think of those Bond cars that had unfolding flaps that allowed them to go from land to sea). And something I wish I had during the hundreds of miles I’ve swam, is nasal flaps, that keep them from having that horrible feeling when water goes up your nose.
And last but not least, Dippers have dense plumage with a large preen gland for waterproofing their feathers. And their eyes have well-developed focus muscles that can change the curvature of the lens in their eye which enhances their underwater vision.
The Dippers drab gray colors hide their true beauty. They have the ability to survive zero degree nighttime temperatures in the Mountain Southwest, and still get up the next morning and go for a swim.
Next time, you’re enjoying your lunch by a mountain stream, keep your eyes peeled for this dancing bird of the west. She’ll put a little boogie in your step!
