Water ouzels busy teaching youngsters in eastern Idaho – East Idaho News

On the LeHardys Rapids in Yellowstone Park, I noticed a small darkish grey fowl that seemed to be pecking a gap in a rock out within the Yellowstone River. As I received nearer, I noticed the fowl was killing a Yellowstone cutthroat trout fingerling. Earlier than I might get an image of it, the fowl fed the fish to its child, a younger American dipper, usually known as a “water ouzel.”

For the following half hour, I studied two adults as they tried to show three younger dippers find out how to harvest, kill and eat various kinds of water bugs. Probably the most quite a few meals of alternative was the stonefly nymphs, we used to name hellgrammites once we had been youngsters. Additionally they caught leeches and different aquatic bugs as they crept alongside the underside of the longest undammed river within the contiguous United States.

The mother and father of those superb younger hatchlings would bury their head into the fast-moving present as they searched the underside of the river for meals. Typically the mother and father would dive into the present and take away a stick or different obstacles to show the hiding locations for the bugs. Then they’d encourage the children to get into the water to catch their very own meals.

After diving into the water, the adults would stroll on the underside with their wings unfold out that made them seem as they had been flying underneath the water. Specialists report that they don’t really fly underneath the water however use their outstretched wings to regular themselves as they stroll in opposition to the swift present.

The mother and father had been very vocal with their kids and because the climate is getting somewhat colder, the children should be taught to fend for themselves. They are going to keep on the rapids 12 months round with the male defending his chosen nesting place. The one issues that may trigger them to maneuver shall be if the rapids freeze over utterly or if the river turns into polluted sufficient to kill the bugs.

The dippers are good indicators of water high quality as their life relies on the abundance of aquatic bugs. Oh, they’ll sometimes catch and feed on small fish, however they like the larvae of huge flying bugs that additionally want unpolluted water.

They’re additionally geared up to deal with the bitter chilly Yellowstone winters. They’ve a really low metabolic charge with an additional carrying capability of oxygen of their blood. Their feathers are so thick that water can’t get to their pores and skin, even their eyelids are coated with feathers which might be white, which reveals after they shut their eyes.

Most swift-flowing streams within the mountains of Idaho shall be residence to those ouzels. I’ve watched them on Palisades Creek, the Henrys Fork of the Snake River and alongside Heat River through the winter. Throughout extreme winters when mountain rivers water turns into flowing ice slush, they’ll transfer into the portion of the rivers within the hotter valleys. When you discover some or go to LeHardys Fast, take a half hour and watch them, they are often very entertaining.

They aren’t the one unusual birds at LaHardys. The uncommon harlequin geese spend the spring, summer time and fall on the rapids. Because the male Harlequins have already migrated to the Pacific Coast, the much less colourful females together with their babes are getting ready to hitch the males. This may occur quickly, however within the subsequent couple of weeks, they will nonetheless be seen setting on the rocks and diving for meals within the rapids.

Visiting Yellowstone within the fall is certainly one of my favourite issues to do with the LeHardys Rapids excessive on my checklist to go to. I nonetheless like to learn the naturalist John Muir’s writings in regards to the water ouzel and different wild issues in his many essays and books.

Benefit from the nice autumn that we’re having – too a few years we have now a brief fall season and we have now been blessed with an awesome one this 12 months. It virtually makes the new summer time value it!!