As my hikes/backpacks tend to take me along mountain streams I've had opportunities to watch American Dippers in action, but only once have I come close to capturing their technique photographically. This sequence was taken in Sept 2008 along Big Pine Creek in California's eastern Sierra Nevada using the 40D/100-400 IS on a BushHawk mount. Due to the fading light and the Dipper's quickness I had to use ISOs 1250 and 1600 and an aperture of f5.6. I used a bit of noise removal in Paint Shop Pro X2, but the pics were much cleaner than I expected. C and C welcome.

1
Still somewhat dry --

Very nice series of a bird I've never seen or heard of before. Great stuff!

Jason-

What a cute little bird Steve,

I especially like the first two & the last.

Lil

Interesting captures, well done, bruce

elbmuh wrote:
Very nice series of a bird I've never seen or heard of before. Great stuff!

Jason-

It's an amazing little bird, Jason. You'd think that a creek as swift-flowing as this one was would knock this lightweight fellow downstream, but there he was going against the current. You'd think there would be easier ways to find food.

Thanks,
Steve

Lil Judd wrote:
What a cute little bird Steve,

I especially like the first two & the last.

Lil

Hi Lil,

It's just a fairly nondescript little gray bird (nothing like the Mandarins ) but it sure has adapted itself to its environment. Not that easy to photograph, though. I saw one again this September and the pics are all OOF.

Best Wishes,
Steve

B Benson wrote:
Interesting captures, well done, bruce

Thanks for the look and comment, Bruce.

Steve

Steve,
Congratulations on a fine series, Awesome

Tim

Wonderful series Steve. #4 is a fantastic catch. I love watching these guys but they do like the dark places to do their work. WTG

Rob

I love watching these guys but they do like the dark places to do their work. +1

I have watched these guys but never in enough light to photograph them as well as you have Steve, well done!

One minor correction, it is a nictitating membrane.

Tim

Steve,
Interesting to see exemplary behavioral shots of this rarely seen bird (at least in our local area). I saw some of them about 200 ft inside the gate across the bridge from Glacier Lodge.

Andy

nice work steve. these little guys are super fast!

- hung

Nice Steve and a new one for me. Also maybe to the bird one red ant was better than no red ant. Amazing what birds and animals will eat and I can't even have a beer. BUMMER
Lou

I remember this bird! They must have some pretty strong grippers to hold onto that slippery bottom in the current. Infomative series Steve, nice 'skinny-dippin-bird' Thanks for sharing what seems to be a rarely photographed bird.

Karl

Steve -
Thanks for bringing to my attention a new species. When I was up at Zion in September, I watched a bird engaged in the same behavior for a very long time, but didn't know what kind of bird it was.
- Ken

They really do dip! How cute they are and fine captures.

Jeanette

Great Job Very Nice . Ed

Very nicely documented series well done Steve

Garen

That was awesome to watch Steve! hard to understand why they go through so much trouble getting their food!

Nice job on a very tuff to get subject.

Wacky roger
Founding Member Of OOOPs

Wonderful job on this very quick moving, dark area loving bird, I have seen these guys numerous times, but never been able to get a shot that was worth keeping...thanks for proving it can be done! I don't know WHY you and Tim think Cigarettes and nicotine have anything to do with his eye though....haha just kidding
Thanks for sharing!!
Larry

What a interesting and fine set, Steve. I've never seen this bird in real life, But, as you said, must be fascinating to watch them. Thanks for sharing these, they look very good. Great job!
Socrate

Excellent behavioral sequence here Steve... I've never even heard of this bird before, let alone seen one. I really enjoyed seeing these, thanks so much for capturing these and sharing them with us.

Kirk

Well done Steve, very nice captures

Dick.

VERY nice series of a bird that is most difficult to capture well.

Nicely done!