Dippers (Les Cincles)

      Once in a while, quite often actually, Miriam and I will reminisce about the exciting habitats around the globe we have been privileged to experience, and the birds we have seen. I am quite sure that this tendency has been accentuated by restrictions imposed by COVID and the consequent inability to travel. Armchair reminiscence is a great panacea. 

     There are five species of dipper (Cinclidae) in the world and we have spent time with four of them. They are very entertaining little birds, known as dippers due to their habit of bouncing up and down, or dipping. We are especially fond of dippers, and Miriam suggested I do a small piece on my blog. That seemed like a great idea!

    I will cover them in the order in which we have seen them, using our own images, even though for two of the species we have but a single picture and not of sterling quality. For the fifth species I have used a photograph from the internet.

American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus)

Find a fall or a casade, or a rushing rapid, anywhere upon a clear stream and there you will surely find its complimentary ouzel, flitting about in the spring, dining in the foaming eddies, whirling like a leaf among the foam-bells; ever vigorous and enthusiastic, yet self-contained and neither seeking nor shunning your company.....He is the mountain stream's own darling, the hummingbird of blooming waters, loving rocky ripple slopes and sheets of foam as a bee loves flowers, and a lark loves sunshine and meadows.

John Muir

     Dippers have been successful colonists throughout the world, and there are few areas with suitable habitat where they are not present. Sadly, eastern North America is one of them, and we can only see this species when we visit the western regions of the continent. We often joke, when we pass a rapidly-flowing stream, highly-oxygenated, with suitable rocks, that we should keep an eye out for a dipper. Wishful thinking indeed.

     I first saw American Dipper near Estes Park, CO, USA many years ago, but the location where we have enjoyed the most prolonged and intimate contact has been at Goldstream Park on Vancouver Island, one of my favourite spots in the entire world.

     On our last visit there one very cooperative individual patrolled a section of a stream, and performed just about every behaviour you can imagine, and remained with us for fifteen or twenty minutes.

American Dipper (Cincle d'Amérique) at Goldstream Provincial Park, Langford, BC

06 April 2018

     Dippers, it seems to me, are among the most enigmatic of the world's birds. They live in wild, rugged places with rapidly flowing streams, in regions often the least modified by humans. And they are endearing. Their name is derived from their habit of bouncing up and down as though on a spring - "dipping." They plunge into icy rapids with abandon, emerging with caddis fly larva which they pound into submission, ridding the larva of its protective shield of pebbles, to gulp down their prize. Their whole lifestyle is wedded to water and it is only in their mountain haunts that we find them going about their lives.

     There are but five species of dipper in the world, and I consider myself fortunate indeed to have enjoyed four of them. The fifth, the Rufous-throated Dipper (Cinclus schulzi) of the remote, almost inaccessible regions of northern Argentina and southern Bolivia will probably remain a mere vision in my mind.

     On a recent trip to Vancouver Island off Canada's west coast one of our targets was American Dipper (C. mexicanus) and we were able to locate it in Goldstream Provincial Park.

     Miriam and I have had several previous encounters with this species, but for Franc, Carol, Jim, Francine and Judy, our fellow birders, it was a first. Fittingly, it seemed, the first four individuals mentioned above saw their first dipper ever last year, White-throated Dipper (C. cinclus), in Slovenia when we also travelled together. With two species under their belt they have already seen 40% of the world's dippers!

     Dippers use their nictitating membranes frequently to protect their eyes from hazards in the water and Miriam was able to capture this photograph of a bird drawing the membrane across its eye while on a log.

     There were at least two individuals and possibly three in the area and they put on a show for us for at least ten minutes.

     It gave us ample opportunity to really enjoy them and observe many facets of their unique lifestyle.

    A complete report of our trip will be posted in the next few days.