The weather outside is frightful, but spring is coming anyway. In the past week
I've seen several black phoebes, vg and tree swallows have made cameo
appearances, and several rufous hummers have been regular nuisances to the
anna's at my single feeder. The western white-ribboned carpet moths have been
fluttering from one side of the river to the other, and back again. The tops of
the alders are starting to glow red, indian-plum flowers are dangling over the
river banks, and the fiddleheads are just a couple of days from the sauté pan.
One of the best parts of spring for me are the american dippers. Scarce two
weeks ago, they are buzzing all over the rivers now, swimming, singing, and
gathering moss to build their nests. Two days ago I floated past a very
conspicuous, bright green, moss donut, stuck to the side of a cliff, I knew it
to be the start of a dipper's nest. I would have loved to stop for a photo, but
it was adjacent a nasty little rapid. So, today I pulled over ahead of time to
get the pic. The nest is nearly complete already, the moss donut has become a
moss igloo. The fresh young moss that was used for the bulk of the internal
structure has been covered with older, darker moss for camouflage. In fact,
after having marked the bright green donut fairly well, I couldn't find the nest
until the bird led me to it.
Anyway, here's the pic. The entrance to the nest is directly above the birds
tail.
Cheers,
Scott O'Donnell
Attachment:
American Dipper at Nest.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
Mesoleuca gratulata (western white-ribboned carpet moth).jpg
Description: JPEG image
