Close views of parent Am Dippers

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These are pics of one (or possibly both) parent birds in the prior post. The top pic shows the parent bringing a small insect to the nestlings. Notice the small drops of water on it's plumage, a demonstration of how well their feathers are waterproofed by oils from the preen gland.
The second pic is an enlargement of the first pic so that it shows clearly it's third eyelid, a white one, called a nictitating membrane "which acts as a windshield wiper when underwater" per the Smithsonian Zoological Park website.
I took the third pic as the dipper was starting to "dip" into the water. The fourth pic is an enlargement of the third pic that shows the dipper's eye and bill quite nicely.
The bird(s) in these pics was about 10 feet away; but I didn't approach it that close, it flew in as I stood as motionless as possible. Like the pics in the prior post, these are all hand held without the benefit of image stabilization as it is not available on my 400mm lens. I do shoot at fairly fast speeds to compensate but I also have to hold the camera very still to get good results. SeEtta

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