American Dipper

Decided to head out to the Sunshine Coast this morning, after getting off the ferry i picked up an old friend i had recently gotten back in touch with, he had never been birding before and figured i would take him out with me shooting.
I'm always hoping for Rock sandpipers and was pretty sure i timed the tides correctly but saw only turnstones, oystercatchers and surfbirds, no Rocky, again.
Took another drive and i decided to check out a creek i know that has an American Dipper every winter, walked a bit further from where i usually see it and saw ideal conditions for a dipper, lots of rocks and a fast-moving current.
Waited a while at the spot but no dice, my buddy motioned me further down the path because he wanted to show me a GBH that he saw land somewhere nearby, i followed him but the bird remained hidden.
On the way back he put the binoculars i lent him to good use when he exclaimed "what's that small bird in the water splashing around?" sure enough, there was my dipper, exactly where i had visualized it earlier.
This turned out to be a pretty good spot and i bettered my shots from 2010 at Goldstream.











It was great that my buddy was able to not only spot but check out a very interesting and cool species from a safe distance while i worked it frantically along the slippery water's edge

high 5 bro!