With the trip nearing its end, we took the last day of July to hit some convenient places around Juneau. We started out with a visit to Rotary Park on the Douglas Island side. Rotary Park is nothing more than a playground with some bushes and trees and residential buildings around.
We didn't stick around Rotary Park for long. We had a quick bite and headed to Cope Park for a walk with the dogs. The running water looked promising, but our expectations weren't too high considering our luck of days prior.
We headed up the trail along the water. Lo and behold:
My first confirmed American Dipper! Yes!! We continued up the trail a ways, grabbed a few more pictures and then circled back.
We were almost back to the parking lot when another dull-colored flash of a dipper passed by, heading downstream of us. We squatted on some rocks, watched and waited, and the dipper began skipping rock to rock. It came closer and closer, ducking its head below the water. The dogs sat still as well, giving no more than the occasional whine. The dipper came within FEET of us. It got so close that I couldn't focus on it and didn't get any great pictures, but it was awesome.
Skipping back over the channel, we wandered the Rainforest Trail. The forest was alive with birdsong, and we spotted a lifer three-toed woodpecker scaling a tree near the beach. We also went for a short walk beside the Twin Lakes, but the heavy rain sent us back indoors for the night.
