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DIPPER

Other common names: Water Ouzel.

Museum Specimens - Paradise River (3100).

An inhabitant of the swiftly running mountain streams and rivers, the dipper becomes a bit of animated attraction to all mountaineers and fishermen who follow or cross our park streams. His wonderful activities in the water are different from those of any other bird, whether songster or water bird. He surely is in a class by himself.

In looks and in some of his habits he might be considered a big water wren, and that is what he really is. In early spring, while the snow is still deep on both sides of the stream, we hear and are thrilled by his song, reminding us of the winter wren's notes, only louder. He has the same excited, jerky motions of the winter wren as he flits from stone to stone, and both build a round nest of green moss with the entrance on the side.

Dippers, while they are wren-like in shape and actions, are as large as a bluebird but have a shorter tail. They are uniformly dark gray in color, the young birds showing more brownish.

The dipper may be considered a resident of the park, although most of them descend the streams, past the boundaries, in winter. In fact, some of them travel as far as salt water and are recorded on Puget Sound. They return early and nesting activities begin by April 1. Their natural nesting location is in a rock wall or perpendicular bank bordering the stream, but they have become modernized to the extent of building on the girders beneath bridges. In this way the visitor sees more of them as they pass in and out while building or feeding the young. Would it not be a good plan to leave a niche or space ten inches wide and ten inches deep in the cement under our bridges so the birds could nest? The smooth cement bridges of today do not offer any such attraction.

The nest is made of green moss, shaped to fit the niche, with the entrance on the side. As water keeps dripping down the face of the rock, the nest is often soaked like a sponge, but the raised platform of dead leaves and grass within keep the eggs dry and warm. Four or five white eggs are laid early in April, and a second set in June.

These birds spend their lives along the shores of a stream or pond. The swiftest water means little to them as they can walk down or plunge into it, feeding along the bottom. One wonders at their fearlessness of water as they do not have webbed feet nor do they swim on the surface as the water birds do. Their food consists principally of periwinkles and larvae obtained at the bottom of the streams.

I once had a pair of dippers under observation for an hour or more. The birds were busy feeding a nestful of grown young under a bridge. They came repeatedly with mouthfuls of food, so I went quietly downstream to see, if possible, just what they were collecting. I was much surprised to see both birds not on the water, but up on thee horizontal, moss-covered limbs of the willows and cottonwoods growing along the stream. These trees were large and at times the birds were fifty feet up. They were obtaining bugs and beetles from the moss, walking along the limbs until their mouths were full. This was new to me as I had never seen them away from a stream or the shore of a pond.

Strange as it may seem, these delightful birds have in places been put on the predatory list as destroyers of game-fish eggs. Streams that formerly contained pairs of these interesting birds are now without them - certainly a loss to thee fly-caster as he fishes the stream, enjoying Nature at its very best. A bird that continually hangs about a fish hatchery may well be dispensed with, but to clear the whole stream is wrong. They are too wonderful a bird to sacrifice, too much a part of Nature's plans and pictures!

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WESTERN WINTER WREN

Museum Specimens - Longmire (2700); Sunshine Point (2000).

When you take your first walk through the deep, quiet woods in spring, there suddenly breaks out a trill of song that surprises and pleases you. You have wandered into the nesting area of the winter wren. It may take some time to discover this little brown mite of a bird, but if you just stand still he will prove that he is too nervous and excitable to remain hidden. Your presence has started him to sing and he will keep it up until you leave. Oologists have learned, however, that if the nest is approached too closely he becomes silent and remains so until you move away.

So energetic are these wrens in spring that the building of one nest is not enough, and several "decoy" or dummy nests may be found before the occupied nest is discovered. In fact, the latter is pretty well hidden. These "decoy" nests look natural from the outside but are not lined and, if used at all, they may be the roosting place of the male bird. The true nest is inconspicuous, made of green moss and lined with feathers, with the entrance on the side. At this entrance is built a little platform of twigs on which the bird alights, thereby not injuring the entrance hole. Four to seven white eggs, sparingly marked with reddish specks, are laid - large eggs for so small a bird. Nesting dates in the Transition zone are from April 15 to 25, while a set of eggs on Eagle Peak at 3700 feet was recorded on May 25 - just a month's difference, which is interesting.

In selecting the nesting site these wrens show quite a variation. It may be behind a piece of loose bark, or in an old nuthatch or chickadee hole. Sometimes they build a round, mossy nest in a salal bush, but the favorite site is in the roots of a freshly fallen tree where the nest is concealed in the dirt and rootlets, leaving only the entrance hole in view.

They have one natural enemy during nesting time - the bumble-bee. Why they fear this insect and submit to its invasions, is difficult to understand as they could easily kill it. However, the bee takes possession of the nest, often when it is full of eggs. She stirs things up inside and brings forth a family of her own. So, before sticking your finger in a wren's nest, always be sure to listen and if you get a "buzz" better leave it alone or you will have a sore, lanced finger.

Winter wrens are common in our wooded areas, and more numerous near the lower park boundaries. They seem to make an upward movement or migration in late summer and fall as little groups, families perhaps, appear at timberline, feeding among the alpine trees. They thrive through the coldest weather in winter, but one wonders on what they subsist.

I once watched a winter wren bathing before it retired for the night. It was a cold, mid-winter evening with fresh snow everywhere. This bird splashed about, getting a full bath but no rub-down! It just disappeared in the brush.

The winter wren is just a tiny brown bird, less than four inches long, with its tail stuck up over its back. One wonders whether it is a bird or a mouse creeping about in the low bushes and fallen logs.

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Descriptions continued...