On a day off from work, I headed to the “Lair Of The Bear” open space park during the late afternoon. I heard many birds calling from bushes and trees around the park. The birds were difficult to see, being hidden by the fresh leaves of spring. After meandering along the trails for a couple of hours, I stopped close to Bear Creak, that runs through the park. Just as I was about to move on, I noticed these three little American Dippers on the rocks along the creek.
These juvenile birds were just a few weeks old. Moving along the creek, I found a better location to make some more images. American Dippers frequent the rivers and creeks where the live, feed and breed. One of the dippers moved to another rock, leaving these two.
Soon, another one moved on, leaving this little guy on the rock.
Adult birds have a very distinctive behavior; they bob periodically as they work along the creek. These little juveniles must have practicing this behavior, because they were bobbing almost continuously! Still images do not show this behavior, so I captured a few video clips that show these cute little birds. Here is a short 50 sec video that I created.
Enjoy!