American Dipper

I made a trip to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood on Saturday. Things were somewhat slow as usual. I had hoped to see Cassin's Finches as I regularly see them there, but not this time. I did get good looks at some Ravens and saw a Fox Sparrow and a large flock of Golden-crowned Kinglets with a couple of Ruby-crown's sprinkled in for the first time up there.
Before heading home I decided to make a quick stop at the burn where there have been reports of a variety of woodpeckers. But, before I got there, I came upon Tamanawas Falls. I stopped there the summer of 2010 and saw my only American Dipper. Since I was low on gas and short on time, I decided to stop there instead of looking for woodpeckers. It turned out to be a good choice as I saw as many as six Dippers and got very close to one as you can see above.

The image above shows the stream where I saw them. It's amazing to watch these birds actually dive head first into the water, sometimes riding the current underwater looking for insects to eat.

Here's an image from across the stream of a Dipper with a successful catch.