Dipper

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 For the last couple of weeks I have been carting a heavy telephoto lens about every time I was near a river in the hope of photographing a dipper. Today I visited the River Eden at Stenkrith Park near Kirkby Stephen and struck lucky within about 5 mins.


The dipper is unique being a songbird that can swim under water. Dippers have short stubby wings that they use to swim with. They don't have webbed feet but have powerful claws with which to trap hold of pebbles whilst they scour the bottom of the river for invertebrates. Dippers have a way of blocking their nostrils when they swim and have the ability to change the shape of their eye lens to compensate for when they are hunting underwater.  Dippers are found in Northern and Western Britain and inhabit areas where there are fast flowing rapids. The following video clip shows the section of the River Eden where I found this bird.


I saw a couple of birds that were hurtling up and down the river and refused to stay still. It all looked pretty exciting - something to do with sex I would guess!


The birds get their name from their habit of bobbing up and down as they sit on a rock beside the river. There is some colour variation in Britain with the Scottish birds having a less pronounced russet brown waistcoat. The sexes look pretty similar and juveniles are a mottled grey colour. The birds have a characteristic high pitched "Zzitt" noise which cuts through the surrounding noise of fast flowing water. They nest is ball shaped nests usually on rocks and crevices over the river (sometimes behind waterfalls).


Diary Notes.

What a change in the weather. 12 C in the sunshine today. We had another visit from the female sparrowhawk today. I also got a glimpse of "our" stoat and got a photograph. We later saw two stoat at the same time (surely a male and a female?) and one of them did that mad stoat dancing thing! Only the third time we have witnessed this. Great sightings and they hung around for about 30 mins. I disturbed two roe deer as I was putting out camera traps in the bog meadow.


Reports of coltsfoot in bloom by the side of the Beck in Hartley. I caught a glimpse of a newt in the pond whilst I was checking for frogspawn ( a smooth newt I think but I will investigate later). Overnight cameras showed rabbits and some red squirrel. We had several visits from the great spotted woodpeckers today, and a collared dove. There is a noticeable increase in the bird song at dawn.











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