Life on the Outer Coast

january 1

Deirdre and I hiked from Herring Cove to Beaver Lake on January 1st. It was sunny and rather cold (max temperture 25F), and we had a late start so didn't often stop walking to look around. The trail was pretty quiet in terms of both people and birds. Did hear kinglets and chickadees in the canopy and crossed paths with two other groups of people. The trail was a bit icy in places, but most of it was crunchy snow which made walking relatively easy.
Picked up a lichen from one of the alders along the trail near the avalanche area. It is greyish green with soredia scattered over the surface. The lower surface isn't uniform in texture, there are areas without a lower cortex, a few rhizines and some tomentum. The lichen greens up nicely when wet. I haven't really taken the time to identify it with any degree of confidence yet.

We walked up to the lake and turned around, neither of us were too interested in walking the road back to the car. We had seen one dipper in the small creek at the beginning of the trail on the way up the trail. Didn't stop to look at it closely, just noticed it was there. On the way back down Deirdre and I noticed the ice on the small cascade, went to take a closer look and aroused 2 dippers. There was much scolding and both flew a short distance away. I did manage to get a photo. Not a brillant one, but what is more noticable in the larger version of this photo, is the yellow beak. I wouldn't have noticed the color of the beak without having taken the photo, so I guess it might be worthwhile hauling a camera around.

The yellow beak is characteristic of juvenile birds. Sibley 's Guide to the birds of North America says that the young of the year birds acquire adult characteristics by fall, if this is true for this area, this bird is woefully behind.

I haven't been able to find much more information about bill color in dippers, so well have to do so more careful observing. I really don't know if this bird was unusual or not.

I have looked at dippers once or twice on Indian River since the 1st.

Saw two dippers in the river. One with a dark beak was about 10ft from the first bridge. The other had a very yellow beak and was feeding in the flats where I have often found dippers.