Video ID: es2047 Title: Mountain Waterfall with Water Ouzels, Wyoming, United States Location: Popo Agie Falls, Wyoming

Tucked behind the larger of these waterfalls and completely invisible to any outside view is the nest of a pair of Water Ouzels.

Excellent swimmers, these small birds are seen throughout the sequence both hunting for aquatic insects and flying behind the falls to deliver this food to their young.

Characteristically, they often bounce on a rock before making their move.

"Among all the countless waterfalls I have met in the course of ten years' exploration in the Sierra, whether among the icy peaks, or warm foot-hills, or in the profound yosemitic cañons of the middle region, not one was found without its Ouzel. No cañon is too cold for this little bird, none too lonely, provided it be rich in falling water. Find a fall, or cascade, or rushing rapid, anywhere upon a clear stream, and there you will surely find its complementary Ouzel, flitting about in the spray, diving in foaming eddies, whirling like a leaf among beaten foam-bells; ever vigorous and enthusiastic, yet self-contained, and neither seeking nor shunning your company."

From: The Mountains of California by John Muir, 1894.

Close