Dip!

We’re big on traditions, Alison and I, and one of the practices we most enjoy perpetuating is the Christmas-time Dipper walk in Nelson. There’s a reliable spot on Cottonwood Creek where we had our engagement photos made a dozen years ago–and where American Dippers are nearly can’t-miss in the snowy season.

We were bundled up from head to toe when we set out yesterday, but the cold doesn’t seem to bother the birds at all.

That water is right at 32 degrees F, and you can bet I wasn’t dipping my toes in, much less dunking my face.

It must pay off, though, with caddis fly larvae and other little bugs enough to keep a bird going on even the coldest days of winter.

What’s really interesting is that over the dozen or so winters Alison and I have bene watching American Dippers at this selfsame location, they’ve almost always been birds of the year–just like this one, aged by the white tipping on secondaries, tertials, and greater coverts. Cottonwood Creek is obviously not the primest of cinclid real estate.