Pebble's Streamside Watch

Pebble was found oiled and struggling on a riverbank, an American dipper. Cleaned and deemed non-releasable due to lung damage from oil ingestion, he came to our avian center. We built him an enclosure with a fast-flowing artificial stream. His characteristic behavior was a constant, deep knee-bend—the 'dipping' that gave him his name. He'd walk into the current, submerge, and walk along the bottom foraging for insect larvae. The stream flows uselessly now, missing his cheerful, warbling song, his comical bobbing dance, and the amazing sight of a songbird walking underwater.