American Dipper Photo

This photo of an American Dipper was taken directly below Roughlock Falls in the Black Hills, on July 8th, 2008.   There's at least one nest in the area immediately below the falls, and on this morning, the adults were extremely busy gathering food for their young.  Every 3 to 5 minutes, one of the birds would shoot down the canyon from the falls, and plop down in or next to the creek and start searching for food.  They were extremely tolerant of my presence, sometimes foraging a mere 10 feet from me as I tried to photograph them. 

In this photo, the adult has already captured 2 small food items, and was about to plunge back into the creek to gather more before flying back to feed its young.  Taken with Canon 20D, 400 5.6L.