A Short Tail of Two Tushes

~ By Sumalee ~

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We embarked on a hike in Central Oregon that we had attempted before but abandoned due to weekend crowds. Today, a Tuesday, featured only three cars in the parking lot. Even more, the thick, gooey mud slog that the trail had turned into and the many felled trees blocking the pathway turned even those few aspiring hikers back.

It was a slog nearly the entire way, dirty and uncomfortable. We had been rewarded with the sight of a solitary American Dipper nearly at our turnaround point. Its cheerful presence signified the healthy quality of the creek water. We remain amazed at the Dipper’s fearless and intrepid entries and exits from strong rushing water and its sure-footed hold on slippery rocks. We had first seen the Dipper at the Devil’s Postpile National Monument near Mammoth Lakes, CA in the Eastern Sierras at a waterfall. This daredevil of a bird literally walks underwater and beneath thousands of pounds of waterfall pressure without compunction.

However, never would we dream that our reward for mud-mushing would grow. On the way back, V opted to take a spur down to the creek far below the trail. We then walked alongside the creek for a bit before V spotted another Dipper, this one dipping its short-tailed tush with a little more vim and vigor than the typical Dipper wag. Another Dipper suddenly flew out of a mossy niche inside a rock ledge overhanging the creek and, before our wondering, saucer-sized eyes, joined in the pumping dance. With strands of reed and twig, these two would by turns fly in and out of the mossy niche—their nest—and continue their courtship, dipping their tushes up and down, wings stretching in and out from their chests, not quite in unison but all the more charming and magical for that. It is a sweet but also comical sight and one we are savoring for hours afterward.

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Note from V - Video is my weakness. If anyone has any tips on making short videos, please let me know them in the ~Comments Invited~ section

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