Towheeblog

Even peripatetic Dippers must stop and think once in a while.  Contemplating the myriad of insects to be found in clear Siskiyou snow-fed streams, you think? Some local Dipperologists are hoping to figure out which particular pray these nesting Dippers are carrying to their nestlings.  Hopefully my pictures will offer some clues.  I did not get any new food in beak pics today.  But there are some on previous blogs.

Note the pale edging on some of the wing feathers.  A rarely noted field mark of the mature Dipper.

Sometimes the food-bearing Dipper helicopters in and hovers briefly, awkwardly in front of the nest hole. More often the adult clings precariously to the lip of the opening, punches its beak into the breach and some hungrey dipperlet inside must grab the grub.

Once today a small white sack fell straight out of the opening and was swept downstream on Ashland Creek’s prodigious current.  Untreated sewage, a fecal sack.