Our Penguin is hanging around Our river regularly now. He’s cute and fascinating to me. I looked him up again today: 6″-8″ tall – that’s just a handful of bird bouncing and dipping up and down on the ice before diving in to scavenge underwater-dwelling invertebrates. That water has to be around 32.001 degrees Fahrenheit, and much worse in my imagination is popping out wet into the below-freezing air. Somehow it works.
Interestingly, he’s officially known as Cinclus mexicanus . You would think his common name would be somewhat related – like Montana Gray Penguin … or Mexican Dipper. But NO, it is commonly called American Dipper and ranges from Panama to the top of Alaska and pretty much from the Rockies to the Pacific.
Another oddity I tripped over while researching our Penguin was the proper spelling of the color Gray…
GRAY IN THE USA
GREY IN ENGLAND
