Having spent a lot of time in the west and loving to watch American dippers
along mountain streams, I always think of the Louisiana waterthrush as the
eastern "dipper". Though not taxonomically related, the Louisiana
waterthrush occupies a similar niche, living and feeding along our eastern
woodland streams and ponds. It also has the habit of bobbing, not quite the
same motion as the Am. dipper, but still a bobbing bird found along
streams.

This morning while doing a breeding bird survey in Wooster Memorial Park
(Wayne Co.), I came across a family of Louisiana waterthrushes along a pond
in the woods. The male was chipping and singing along a nearby stream,
while the female (I assume) was working the surface of the pond, overgrown
with duckweed, looking for food for the young. The two full-grown young
were each sitting on a branch 4-6ft above the edge of the pond. Both still
had a few remnants of down sticking up. Both were giving an occasional call
note, while waiting for mom to show up with the food. I watched this family
for five minutes or so. A wonderful slice of nature on a wet morning in the
woods. Randy Rowe, Wooster

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