Wildlife in a Suburban Garden

 

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A short Minorcan Trip

I have spent the last 5 days  on the Island of Minorca, one of the beautiful  Balearic Islands so beloved by the British working man,  not quite ruined but definitely  scarred, I should imagine no different than just about every other Mediterranean destination.  Not quite "kiss me quick" hats and candy floss but very nearly.  There are some pockets of the original landscape but very few places where burgers and chips are not the  main staple.  Building regulations and planning seem to be totally absent and  the villas, apartments and hotels cling to the rock face like scabs on a pretty face. On the other side of the coin, the  people are friendly enough,  the beer and wine flows for a few Euros and the local bread tastes the way you hoped and expected. What is it that makes normally respectable people expose their nipples in the sun?   The ocean seems pristine, azure and almost tropical with clean fresh sand that is perfect for footprints and castles. Away from the sea sand and smell of Ambre Solaire, flowers,  bees and butterflies abound and Nightingales sing their song, vying with exotic Sardinian Warblers for the starring role.  When the sun has set, bats zip past and the evenings in May are very  pleasant.  Actually seeing the birds can be a frustrating affair but one or two species, due to their feeding habits, are interesting and easier to see.  I have already mentioned Sardinian Warbler, a really gorgeous little bird synonymous with the warm dry habitats of the med. They have the annoying habit of singing noisily from deep scrub and only popping out to fly off to another part of their territory before singing loudly and well hidden again. Although I was only on the Island for 3 full days, I quickly got to know the habits of one particular individual and hatched a plan to get a picture. I noticed that this bird's favourite singing perches included, unusually, a tall conifer, the top of which was at eye level with the neighbouring apartment's swimming pool..... Bingo. I camped myself hidden and close by, just after dawn on my final day, and it was just a matter of waiting for him to arrive.

A pair of Spotted Flycatcher  also liked to use this vantage point as well so during this pleasant last hour or so before throwing my gear back in the suitcase, I took photos of, and learned a bit about this species as well. In fact this was proably the most noticeable species of my short trip. The best place to see them was in the roadside trees where their habit of regularly returning back to the same perch made them easy to see.

The highlight of the trip for me (apart from my gorgeous little granddaughter) was my first encounter for many a year, with a pair of Turtle Doves.  What an outrage if we allow this species to become  even more scarce in the UK.  I knew that they were a pretty bird but watching this pair as they picked their way around me near a beachside carpark made me realise just how beautiful they really are. Having not seen them often enough in recent years it was good for me to hear their distinctive coo-ing, now when I hear them here in the UK I will have a better idea of what to listen out for.

Our apartment for the week was perched precariusly down 74 steep steps, half way down a steep rocky cliff. From this vantage point we had gorgeous views of the inlet and beach beneath us.  It was also, as it turned out, the best place for me to see birds and one species in particular was fantastic to watch. Particularly when it was windy, firstly one then two Black Kite came to try and take the eggs or chicks of the numerous nesting Rock Doves or more accurately Feral Pigeons nesting on the steep cliffs.   At first I wondered what the attraction could be but then I saw one dive steeply and land on a ledge.  From time to time they would glide right past my balcony at eye level, a real spectacle.  I always say that if you can't see the eyes of your photographic subject then you are not close enough so I was thrilled when I took this picture.

This is an Audouine's Gull, a lifetime first for me and when you consider that I have probably seen more than 1000 species of birds in my life, quite good to see one more new species. 

Goldcrest bathing again

Remarkably this morning the Goldcrest, seen bathing yesterday, arrived at the same time of day, to the minute, and bathed in the same puddle. Today though, I was closer than before and I managed to get a couple of good photos but I am sure that I will be able to get better and better ones.  As I sat watching the birds coming and going to the food, a Goldcrest was singing in the trees above me so they are obviously quite common in the wood.

 

At the same puddle at the same time as yesterday!

 

The Greater Spotted Woodpecker female that has taken a real shine to the nuts was constantly coming to get one.  At first I was sat in the hide but decided to see if I could get a different perspective if I came out of the hide and sat in a new spot.  I needed to camouflage myself a little bit at least before the Woodpecker plucked up the courage to come down, and it wasn't long before she was there and giving me a glorious show.  I need to take advantage of this Woodpecker and my next challenge is to try and get some acceptable shots of the bird in flight and in between today's great football matches, that's exactly what I plan to try today.

Its not a Woodpecker but shows that with luck I will be able to get the shot I am looking for.

Just not quite "in-flight" but a fraction of a second after it touched down.

I probably won't be posting for a day or so after this entry.  I am off to Minorca for the week, leaving tomorrow.  It's not strictly speaking a birding trip but I am taking my gear and will expect to have some nice Mediterranean species to post for you.

Two new species at the wood hide and pool.

 

This is a Goldcrest, Britains smallest breeding bird. I really good capture in front of the hide.

 It was just incredible at the wood this morning and that's not an exageration. If you are a bird crazy  amateur naturalist like me then imagine how thrilling this morning was. As soon as I had sat myself inside the hide, in fact before I had even got myself ready, a Greater - spotted Woodpecker was at the nuts. Then she...because it was a female........ was back and giving me a great photo opportunity.  But firstly let me tell you about the other exciting tiny little visitor, a Goldcrest - Regulus regulus, firstly it fluttered above the food and then it went down to the muddy puddle and started to bathe in the murky water amongst the decaying leaves.   Eventually I got some good photos but a mixture of excitement and the constantly moving little bird made it hard. These birds are Britain's smallest breeding bird along with the closely related Firecrest.

 

 

Its really hard to freeze the action unless the sun is really bright but the slightly blurred effect of the wing movements as it bathes adds to this I think.

 

The Woodpeckers, now both male and female came to the food constantly all through the session and I took some nice shots.  You may remember that I had said that it was only a matter of time before the woodpeckers found the food and it took 8 days!  Birds are using the pool to bathe constantly now which I thought would be the case once the standing puddles of the very wet April had disappeared.  Today the drinkers included, Song Thrush, Blackbirds, Coal, Great and Blue Tits, the Goldcrest of course, a Jay and the female Woodpecker. As  well as all of these, an unknown bird was bathing just in front of me, it was tucked behind a growing Foxglove and I couldn't see or photograph it properly but I think it was a Spotted Flycatcher, if so, the 3rdI have seen but still I haven't got a photograph.

 

Obviously a favourite drinking spot for the resident birds. This is a female Greater- spotted you can tell by the absence of red on the nape of the neck.

 

Here she is just checking out the food before coming down to take a peanut.

 

 

I think she may have been aware of the camera here.

 

 

The wood, Kingfishers and a Spotted Flycatcher.

 

Robin - Erithacus rubecula

I am pretty certain that if only these photographs featured some kind of rarity then they would be way up there with some of my most successful.  As it is, if they do anything they confirm that my gear is working properly.  The background on the (above) is natural and is what you get when you use a long lens, a 500 mm prime. The light is perfect and shows this common species at it's very best.  On the one below there is the remains of a spider in the beak.

 

The wood was an interesting place from the hide this evening, it was a really dreary day for the time of year, cold and showery, hence my late outing to the wood.   The squirrels had been up to their worst again and wrecked all the feeders, I really need to do something about it, it cant continue.  Every day the feeders are  destroyed and I am sure that it will only get worse. But back to the session, it was notable for the first visit of a Greater spotted Woodpecker which flew down on to the stump that I had put a 'day-old" chick, intended for a Jay.   Unfortunately I couldn't get a shot today but I know that now Woodpeckers are coming to feed, well, things are progressing well. I also had a beautiful Spotted Flycatcher  right in front of me drinking from one of the pools but, as with the Woodpecker as soon as I moved the lens in it's direction it was spooked and off  it flew.  I have noticed that now it isn't as wet as before, birds are coming to drink and bathe from the pool Also in the mud around the pool edge there was a print from a deer, obviously drinking from the pool.

This morning I tried to photograph the Sand Martins but they didn't seem comfortable with my presence today, birds are funny and I am almost certain that yesterday when I had  a camo hood on they were much more relaxed. This speaks volumes for the use of camouflage.  Pretty certain that the Kingfishers are still continuing with their nest.

 

Great Tit - Parus major

 

This Great Tit had just bathed on the pool.

 

Sand Martins on the river.

I went to check on my Kingfisher nest on the river this morning, glad to see that there was more obvious signs of activity around the burrow and lots of maggots were tumbling out of the hole.  I moved away as quickly as I could incase of disturbance.  Then further down the river bank I was very pleased to see Sand Martins  using a nest burrow in the same area that they have bred in for the last few years but they haven't been able to get to their burrows because of the height of the river.  Now the water has returned to normal level, or almost,  just one pair has started to breed where last year there was at least 15 nests here.  Thats not to say that others will join them over the next few days.  Anyway, I took the opportunity to photograph the pair coming to their nest and from a respectable distant watched as they entered the burrow.  Interestingly there was a breeding pair, both carrying grass in to the burrow, but also a singly bird would also go in with them.  I returned in the afternoon with a plan to try to get a really good shot and almost did, but you can always do better.  This time I photographed from the opposite direction as you can see.

I went to check on my Kingfisher nest on the river this morning, glad to see that there was more obvious signs of activity around the burrow and lots of maggots were tumbling out of the hole.  I moved away as quickly as I could incase of disturbance.  Then further down the river bank I was very pleased to see Sand Martins  using a nest burrow in the same area that they have bred in for the last few years but they haven't been able to get to their burrows because of the height of the river.  Now the water has returned to normal level, or almost,  just one pair has started to breed where last year there was at least 15 nests here.  Thats not to say that others will join them over the next few days.  Anyway, I took the opportunity to photograph the pair coming to their nest and from a respectable distant watched as they entered the burrow.  Interestingly there was a breeding pair, both carrying grass in to the burrow, but also a singly bird would also go in with them.  I returned in the afternoon with a plan to try to get a really good shot and almost did, but you can always do better.

More from the wood and the Jay shows up again.

I know that this photograph may not be to everyone's taste but if it does one thing, it proves that the Jay, a member of he crow family, is a nasty bird.  It was quite gory to see how it dealt with the chick, (a frozen day old purchased froma a pet food supplier and a by- product of the laying industry).   Eventualy having torn it into mouth size pieces, it removed the head and flew off with it leaving me with a camera full of interesting photographs. for the Blog.

 

It mouthed it just like I had seen it do before.

 

But today, it plucked it first and then began to tear pieces off it.

 

Interesting to see that it held it down with it's foot like a true bird of prey.

 

.....................then it plucked the down from the breast before breaking it open to get at the chest cavity and the tasty internal bits.

Then having plucked its head....

 

............It flew off with it.

 

Jay

Now I know what has been taking the free offerings!

 

The Jay arrived on the log and was too big to get in to the frame.

What a great day yesterday turned out to be. It started with a visit to the wood, it was carnage again with both feeding stations wrecked and every shred of food gone.  The plastic feeders had been chewed through and ruined, obviously squirrels were the culprits. I have been leaving out free "day-old chicks".  These can be purchased frozen and in packs of 144. They are a by product of the poultry trade where they are sexed at hatching, the females are retained to go on to become laying hens. The males are worthless for obvious reasons. It all sounds pretty cruel and it is of course.  These day old males are then euthanised by gassing and then frozen to become food for the exotic pet trade.  They can be bought for just a few pence each. I have been hoping to lure Birds of Prey down in front of the hides, or even Stoats and Foxes who will gladly take them.  Every one that I have left has been taken and I was keen to see who is responsible expecting Carrion Crows to be the culprits.

Kingfishers and Whitethroat.

But more of that later, Even though it was a dull wet start to the day, I spent an hour sat in the hide opposite one of my Kingfisher nests but that proved fruitless and I am suspecting that this pair are breeding elsewhere because there was no sign of them. By now it was PM and I was out at the river at Kingfisher nest number 2. I have good news from this nest, it has been "worked" in the last 24 hours with obvious signs of burrowing in the previously washed out burrow.  At the mouth of the nest, maggots were evident, obviously dragged there by the burrowing activity.  Kingfisher nests are known to be filthy with the youngsters and incubating parents sitting on a mound of fish remains and droppings that accumulate around the growing chicks.  By the time the chicks fledge it is a fetid smelly hole so it wasn't a surprise to see maggots. Underneath the burrow there was fresh earth and clear scratch marks around the entrance.  This is really great news. As I walked back to the car there was a Whitethroat patrolling up and down.  This is usual behaviour, they choose a territory and then sing from favourite perches to attract a mate. This is the best time of year to try and see them because once they begin breeding their behaviour becomes much more furtive.  I have not been lucky so far this year but yesterday I managed a photo at last. Not the best in the world but I am reasonably pleased.

 

 

Whitethroat

 Back to the Wood and the  Jay.

So now its late afternoon and I am back in the wood. The feeders are all empty again, I top them up, place a day old chick on a mound in front of the hide and take may place, hidden away and comfortable.  The first bird to arrive was a Great Tit, then Blue Tits and then suddenly there it was, a magnificent Jay. It had landed on the log  a few feet from me.  I couldn't get it all in the frame.  It looked around for peanuts and then flew down to the ground to pick one or two up that had been missed by the squirrels. Then it saw the day old chick and without much hesitation, went towards it, carefully had a look with an intelligent tilt of the head and then picked it up after mouthing it for a few seconds, picked it up and flew off. I uttered one of my wows, reserved for really special sightings, like fighting Kingfishers or mating Dippers!  Jays are a target of gamekeepers who rear Pheasants to release for shoots, I can imagine that they must be real predators of young pheasants because this bird was extremely attracted to the chick and hardly hesitated before it took it away to eat in the safety of a high tree somewhere near. 

 

The Jay flew down to the free offering and cocks its head to get a good look before taking it.

 

It mouthed it to check that it was safe before flying of with it.

 

I returned to the wood last evening, just as it was getting dark.  I was armed with my Bat detector, a pencil and a pad.  It was a little eerie in the half light and the calls from a nerby fox added to the atmosphere.  The calling went on and on, and seemed close so after a short while I left the quarry and walked towrds the calling fox hoping to get closer. As is usual with truly wild animals,  as soon as I got reasonably near to the fox, now just over the brow of a hill, it stopped calling  and slipped away silently. The bat detector did not pick up any bats while I was in the field which was interesting, but back a the quarry I picked up some really interesting echo locations, they were low, around 20-20 KHz, slow clicks followed by much louder double slaps. Very interesting. I am quite confident that I was listening to a  Noctule Bat  (Nyctalus noctula), one of the UK's largest species and as big as a Starling. Tonight in my own garden, I used the bat detector again to listen to a Soprano Pipistrelle that was zooming around my house. Great to have one again this year. 

 

Bats in the wood.

 

The first of 3 different Great Tits from late this afternoon.

 

Not, by any means uncommon but still beautiful to my eyes.

 

Not only are they variable in colour but a species with a high number of different calls.

 

I have got so many projects on the go at the moment that I am in danger of only half doing each one of them. Firstly there are my Kingfisher nests (please be aware that I am licensed by Natural England to photograoh at these nest sites). I spent most of the morning sat in front of one of the nests that had been  flooded out in the recent floods.  I have devised some good camouflage  which I know is working well becuase as I sat there waiting, a Blackcap Warbler came to drink and a Song Thrush perched opposite  and started to feed it's 3 youngsters. However,  in the two hour stake-out the only Kingfisher I saw was a fly by, it's all getting very frustrating!  Then, later on in the afternoon I returned to the wood to continue with my observations and to top up the feeders.  My theory is that once all the resident birds discover, and get used to this new food source I will be able to get some really impressive photos.  The more common and less wary birds are all coming in thick and fast and I have enjoyed watching them and getting some great photos already.  I am watching, and waiting for Woodpeckers to come in, they will sooner or later but so far they haven't,  (at least not while I have been there).  Jays are also high on my wish list and again I am confident that they will once the food source is constant. Last night while I waited for Badgers to come to a pile of peanuts, I was impressed by the amount of bats swooping around.  I am going back with my Bat Detector as soon as it starts to get dark.  This is a clever bit of kit that picks up the high frequency echo location calls of the bats and converts this in to an audible noise. As each species of bat  echo locates at a set frequency you can easily determine the species flying around your head. It seemed to me that the bats I caught glimpses of in the dimpsy light last night were larger than the familiar Pipistrelle that I am familiar with from my garden. Interesting, not long now and I will be back to check!

 

I have been keeping a close eye on the two Kingfisher nests that I have licenses to photograph at. At the first, when I checked the other day I was quite sure that the birds had started to "work"  the burrow but then when I checked again today it seemed doubtfull.  The river has now almost returned to normal levels so I am hoping that they will start to breed again very soon and hopefully re-use the nest burrow again.  The Sand Martins on that stretch of river have now got the opportunity to get to their nest sites and this morning at least 6 birds were "buzzing" around and I am sure that within the next few days they will get down to it. That is always a great photo opportunity.

The 2nd Kingfisher nest was just a little bit more interesting.  I am 100% certain that, as I sat near to the nest, as it happens, watching Whitethroat, I heard a Kingfisher. I took this to be the usual call made as one bird approaches  the nest to feed the other or brings food to the nest. I sat and watched for a while but didn't see any Kingfishers.

A beautiful male Great Tit from the wood hide this morning.

 

The Wood session 2 and 3

At the wood today there was plenty of developments, firstly the peanuts, a large pile had all been cleaned up and not a trace remained. A Badger perhaps?  I hope so.  The feeders at one site were completely empty and the "road-kill" pheasant, wired to a tree stump had been torn from the wire and taken.  Above the stump and high in the nearby trees were 3 Carrion Crows and a Buzzard, how exciting is that.  I sat in the new hide in the apalling weather and snapped away at the visitors, just a great thrill and again, thanks Terry if you read this, for allowing me to in to your woodland.

Below are the four best pictures froma short, wet session late this morning and in the order that they were taken.

 

A pretty but aggressive Blue Tit

 

and on the same perch, a Coal Tit, these seem to be the most common birds here.

 

Yet another Blue Tit.

 

I changed the "furniture" and it wasn't long before a Nuthatch came to check it out.

Then later on in the afternoon I returned again, I can't get enough. I am sure I heard some young foxes playing together nearby, thats  good news and will be good when they show themselves. The  Nuthatches were showing well again.

 

I have had at least two different birds visit.

 

What lovely little birds Blue Tits are.

 

They can be very feisty and aggressive.

 

This is a Great Tit and a male. Birds vary with different degrees of black on the breast, sometimes with a very thick black stripe that ends on the belly and with other individuals goes right down to the vent. This makes it possible to seperate individuals.

 

 

In a Devon Wood

I have recently been given the utter privilege to make use of a completely private wood quite close to my home.  Thanks to my friend Dick and the owner of the woodland, Terry.  Yesterday I did a little bit of preparation and today my observations began. My main focus is going to be Jay, Green Woodpecker, Greater - Spotted Woodpecker and Buzzard.  I  set up a couple of feeding stations yesterday and when I went for a look this morning I was amazed at the amount  of activity. I set about building  a hide overlooking the "action" and once it was finished I spent a wonderful couple of hours photographing the visitors. I couldn't  help but smile, in fact almost laugh out loud when the birds came thick and fast.  It was mostly Coal Tits at first, I could hear a Woodpecker constantly. I have no doubt whatsoever that sooner or later, probably sooner, I will get some good woodpecker photos and I am really looking forward to that. But for this afternoon I had to be content with Nuthatches and tits. It was a wonderful afternoon and I cant wait for the next session. I caught sight of a probable Spotted Flycatcher but couldn't get my lens focused on it, but that was very encouraging.  The Nuthatches were really glorious, what a bird species this is, it's going to be "dead easy" to get some stunning photographs of them, just imagine, these pictures  today were just the first ones with very little preparation of what is going to be many sessions in the coming weeks and months.  This post is to show Terry and Dick what I have been up to today and also to give you a taste of what is to come.

 

One of the first shots from the new hide, a Nuthatch, how good is that! I got the impression that this was a newly fledged bird and not an adult,

 

 

Even only a baby, it's already the king of the feeder and throwing it's weight about.

 

 

A feature of this species is the ability to move up and down a trunk or branch upside down.

 

 

So hanging upside down is not really a problem.

 

 

I think an adult would be more blue and less grey than this.

 

 

This is an adult, probably male, Blue Tit in a classic pose.

 

 

This is a Coal Tit, males and females are identical.  Compare the beak of this with the Blue Tits, a sure indicator that the two species feed in a different way and that's why they don't compete with each other.

 

 

I'm pretty sure that this is a female........ well I would stake my house on it.

 

 

Compare the one above to this obvious male, who was showing quite a degree of aggression but its really good to compare the two and see how much more strongly marked and coloured the male is.

 

 

It was nice to sit dry inside my new hide while the birds were getting drenched like this Great Tit.

 

Common Starling at the nest

 

A Starling flies in to feed it's young.

 

..... and then departs carrying a faecal sack.

 

I spent the weekend away from Devon and with family in Surrey.  Every time I am in that part of the country I visit Richmond Park, close to the large bustling town of Kingston. Richmond Park is an unbelievable oasis of greenery and wildlife, large, clean and frankly beautiful. It is full of impressive ancient Oak trees, some dating back 400 years.  The  trees are home to hole nesting birds including Ring-necked Parakeets, Jackdaws and all 3 species of the UK's Woodpeckers.  The variety and number of birds is incredible but not only birds, there are Red and Fallow Deer, semi-domesticated of course, but also Red Foxes and Rabbits and no doubt Stoats and Weasels.  I even saw a Fox carrying a Rabbit, dangling in it's jaws as it trotted by me 100 yards away through one of the set-aside woodland areas. On the way through Kingston an urban Fox was sitting on the lawns of the impressive County Hall building, casually sunning itself as the early morning commuters walked by, obviously so common an occurrence that they didn't even give it a look.  

 

An urban fox in a hatched "don't enter area" on the road, watches me watching him and wonders why I am taking an interest?

 

I watched Starlings coming and going from their nest in a dead tree.  This tree was a nursery with a total of 6 holes, probably made by woodpeckers over the years but now providing perfect nest sites for any hole nesting species.  Just about a foot away from the Starlings, Jackdaws had a clutch of eggs. I spent several hours over 4 sessions photographing the commings and goings of the starlings who would fly in every few minutes with a variety of food including big black flies by the beak full, worms and beetles as well as unrecognisable items foraged from picnic tables perhaps? It was quite a challenge trying to capture the Starlings in flight, timming was all important but dealing with the light was more of a challenge, but it was good practice for the Kingfishers that I hope to photograph when I have set up at the nest sites that I have licenses to photograph at.

Starlings are one of the UK'smost over-looked birds. Too common to even raise a glance by many but they are incredibly handsome especially in the breeding season wih an irridescent spangled plumage only really apreciated whe seen close up..... so here's your close up! 

A big mouth, too big to miss.

 Some times it's possible to get a one-off photograph of a bird in-flight and of course thats great.  What I tried to do here was capture as many in-flight as I could, and there are many more. To get dozens of photos like this takes a lot of effort and patience and real use of the camera as you constantly need to "juggle" with the settings to adjust to the changing light conditions. Camouflage is also needed to allow the birds to come and go from the nest without them being disturbed which means that their behaviour is going to be natural and uninterupted.

Here one flies in with a massive beetle.

 

This is a beak full of flies and grass, probably carried by mistake.

 

I doubt it could hardly get more flies in it's beak.

Starlings, an attractive if noisy and definitely a social and at sometimes messy bird but always worth a second look. You might be interested to know that all these photographs were taken with the camera set to at least 1/2000 second and at times 1/3000 to freeze the instant in time.

A Jackdaw, Britain's smallest crow species, leaves it's nest hole just a foot away from the Starling's.

 

 

Garden Warbler - Sylvia borin

I returned out to the moor again today, the weather was overcast but  this made photography a little easier because I didn't have to deal with "back-lit" bright light. I set myself up in the gorse the same as yesterday and waited for the Whitethroat to show itself in front of me. Quite quickly today I could hear a Garden Warbler singing very loudly and very close but just out of range of the camera in a nearby tree.  I took matters in to my own hands and moved in amongst the gorse with a clear of the tree. Using seceteurs, I cut a hole through the gorse to poke the lens through and then completed my camouflage with netting. It was just a case of waiting for the bird, on it's singing round, to arrive back in front of me.  I just love it when things work out well because that is exactly the way it happened. It was singing very loudly to my left and suddenly there he was right there in front of me and exactly where I wanted him.  Garden Warbler are not really a very attractive bird, they are devoid of any bright colours, any wing-bars or eye-stripe. In fact, quite a plain bird but they sing beautifully to say the least.  If you are familiar with Blackcap Warblers then this species is almost identical but without the marked head, black in the male and brown n the female. They are hard to see, even more difficult to photograph and often overlooked so when I failed to photograph Whitethroat ths was a great substitute.

Whitethroat

At last we had a dry day, can you believe that we are saying that at this time of the year.   My plan for the last few days, although I haven't had the weather to follow it through, has been to try and concentrate on photographing the Whitethroats that have just started to arrive on migration.   This is a good time of year to photograph them because as soon as they arrive at their breeding grounds they sing to establish territories. They will perch in exposed places to sing loudly and for minutes at a time before moving on to another favourite spot.  I had a plan.  Knowing where they had bred last year I expected them to establishing territories at the moment. I took some camouflage stuff, my gillie suit and netting etc. and of course my camera with my 500 lens.  I sat myself down in a spot amongst dead bracken and  brambles with some Hawthorn and Rowan trees nearby. The camo worked because after a minute or so, a bird arrived and began to sing like a demon from one of the bare trees. It wasn't in a good spot for photos, hidden by branches and foliage.  I took a few shots though using the manual focus but they weren't really successful. Now knowing that this was a favourite tree to sing from a set myself up amongst the gorse bushes and stood this time.  I used the netting to make some kind of rudimentary hide which I was sure, would work well.  It did, a female Linnet came in and landed just about in the perfect place.  Unfortunately the light was coming from the wrong direction now, this photo lark is not easy you know, it's rare that you have a perfect set of circumstances.  I almost like the lighting in the photo, but only almost........  it's a female!

Female Linnet -Carduelis cannabina

I "cut my teeth" on this species.  When I was a boy they were one of the most common birds of my childhood. My father who introduced me to birds as a 5 year old was very familiar with them and one of the first nests that I saw was a Linnets nest.  My dad, when he was a child in the 1930's would take the eggs to put under his father's canaries, Linnets and a cross between a Canary and a Linnet, a mule, were very commonly kept as cage birds in the early 20th century. Now Linnets are in serious decline.

 

The background of this picture, also called the "Bokah" is acheived by using the 500mm lens. The bird is in the foreground and on an isolated branch. The background is far to far in the distance for the lens' s short depth of field and is, therefore blurred and out of focus. This makes the bird, which is the subject of the photo, stand out without any annoying or confusing backgrounds.  This is a feature of a 500mm lens and what you are trying to acheive. Incidentally the 500mm lens cost 1 penny short of £4000 so you would hope for a decent photo now and then!
Carrying on with the story of today's  Whitethroat photography , (click on the link to Wikipedia to read about them).  It was frustrating because after I had moved, instead of perching in front of me he chose a tree behind!  I could see him singing and really well,but I knew that the light wouldn't be any good at all and any photos would be useless  so I just watched and enjoyed his singing.  Then it was perched behind the gorse nearby and to my right, but that's what makes it interesting and satisfying.  Success is even more sweet if you have had to work hard for it.  

I have had quite an inspiring day today.  My application for a license to photograph Kingfishers at the nest has been granted.  This is a great bit of news and something that I am very proud to have achieved. The granting of a license from Natural England  is by no means a formality and I have been working for two years to get the necessary photos needed and that I had  to provide, to prove  my competence.  Kingfishers are a Schedule 1 bird and afforded special protection and it is absolutely against the law to photograph them at the nest without the required license. When I mention this to my none birding friends they look at me you s though I am  in some kind of fantasy land and making this up. One "friend" particularly was so  doubting to point of almost calling me a liar....weird!   The only disappointment is that when I checked the nest this evening I could see that they had definitely been flooded out and the chicks are drowned, this is very  sad but, being positive, I can see where either the Kingfishers have started a new burrow or more likely, Sand Martins who usually nest in a colony along this stretch.  So to be positive I am expecting them to attempt to nest again.

Now Kingfishers and Sand Martins flooded out as well as Dippers.

Yesterday was more than a bird photography day, frankly it was a day that I wouldn't want  to repeat too often.  I have a tooth abcess and it  needs sorting.  Extraction was attempted and then the dentist gave up, he plans to take it out on Tuesday when the infection has been dealt with by strong antbiotics.  So, battered and bruised, I  painfuly, I went to the river to check on one of my Kingfisher nests.  You may remeber that I have applied to Natural England for a License to photograph this nest site and am waiting to find out if I have been successful.  In the meantime the success of this nest is in peril due to the massive amount of rain that has fallen this last two weeks.  I sat watching about 100yards down stream, tucked away quietly  to see if the birds were coming to the nest burrow.  In the hour and half that I watched, no Kingfishers came to or from the nest.  At one point a Kingfisher flew swiftly down the (wide) river opposite and made no attempt to come near the nest.  I am, sadly therefore, assuming that the nest burrow has been flooded out and the chicks have been drowned.  What with my flooded and failed Dipper nest, this is very sad and I am disappointed to say the least.  The only compensation is that the birds will probably make another  attempt to nest again and then, hopefully I will be in possession of the required license and I will be able to photograph the process.  If drowned Kingfisher chicks arent bad enough, the Sand Martin colony in the same area hasn't even got going yet. In fact yesterday there was no sign of Sand Martin whatsoever whereas in previous years, by now burrows were dug and the colony was very active.  Are the Sand Martins going to fail too?  

In between the showers the air was clean and bright and the rain has cleaned everything up. I hadn't got my camera with me but I walked around the new fishing ponds just to have a look.   3 or 4  Wheatear obviously just arrived on migration,  were feeding from the fence posts and it was so lovelly to see them.  Wheatear are interesting because of their long migration, these birds now here, only yards from my house had just turned up having flown all the way from sub-Saharan Africa and who knows where they will end their journey to breed.  I rushed back home for my camera, the air was clear and the light was good.  When I returned 15 minutes later, they were still in the same place and posing beautifully, a real picture and a great photo opportunity. and one which I eagerly accepted.

 

Comparing Curlew with Whimbrel

 

Curlew- bigger with a noticeably longer beak.

 

Whimbrel, browner, with a shorter beak and noticeably different "patterned" head.

On Exminster Marsh at the moment there has been a flock of several hundred Whimbrel - Numenius phaeopus , an attractive large wader which is very similar to Curlew.  They are on passage at the moment, back to their breeding grounds much further north. They have been quite a spectacle and very pleasant to see. I thought it would be good to post pictures of both species next to each other for comparison.

 

Black-winged Stilt, Exminster RSPB

I watched with more than interest, the reports of Black-winged Stilts from the adjoining counties of Somerset and Dorset and hoped that we would eventually get one here in Devon and today it happened.  The weather gets worse! It's a day for not only ducks but any bird comfortable in an aquatic environment so I suspect that when these three flew over the marsh, now almost a lake after the heavy rains of the last few days, they couldn't resist a stop over.   

I love this species, so elegant so attractive and so ridiculous really, their legs don't seem capable of supporting their bodies.  I have seen them in other parts of Europe and even this time last year in Australia so I am very familiar with them but nevertheless, who can resist them. 

The three were feeding alongside a flood in the fields about 100 yards in front of me,  it was raining and raining hard.  At first I was alone and all the time that, that was the case   I was hopeful that they would fly from the distant flood to the one much nearer to my position.  Other people started to arrive and at first, decorum was observed but pretty soon it turned in to the usual noisy melee that often accompanies this kind of birdwatching, colloquially called a "Twitch".  At one point the three took to the air and were flying towards us but did an airborne u-turn and flew to the pool even further away.  That was fine for the other observers who had scopes and as long as they had seen the bird and could 'tick" it off they didn't really mind!  Thankfully it rained harder and the little crowd thinned to just two, me and another more serious observor, but the rain "persisted" down and he left as well......... result!  I hudled against the deluge and then they were in the air and flying in my direction, they landed to my right, much nearer and started to work towards me. After not many minutes one flew back followed by a second but the third continued on it's path towards me.  In the pouring rain, I took a few pictures and I am relatively pleased with the outcome.  Yet again an example of patience and the need to go just that extra mile, well in this case just an extra few yards really.

 

One of the adults flies back across the marsh.

 

This one appears to be a younger individual.

Interestingly, the other bird is a Whimbrel, a very interesting bird but today playing second fiddle to a real star turn.

 

Tree Pipit - Anthus trivialis

 

I went back to the same lovely spot close to Dartmoor where I had seen a Tree Pipit on Saturday morning.   I was hoping that,  given some luck and a decent bright  day, I would get a decent photo. I couldn't believe it when, as soon as I climbed out of the car I could see, and hear it in the same Hawthorn that it had been in on my previous visit.  Obviously this bird has set up a territory here and is singing to attract a mate, probably yet to arrive on migration.  In the end I actually saw at least 3 different males.

They were all singing at the tops of hawthorns and from time to time, performing parrachute song flights.  It turned out to be a really nice session and a real example of the wild areas, so full of wildlife here in Devon and close to my home. To start with it is unbelievably beautiful, England at it's glorious best with scenery that is as good as anywhere in the world. As I walked quietly down the hillside amongst huge boulders braken and sparse bushes, the air was filled with birdsong, mainly Willow Warblers and the Tree Pipits of course, but also Yellowhammers, Linnets and Chaffiches were everywhere.  Buzzards soared above in mating display flight.

 My day became even better when, as I came over the brow of the hill I was just feet from a deer, then another which amazingly was a buck Fallow Deer.  That was a real surprise because I had absolutely no idea that Fallow Deer were living wild on Dartmoor. The buck sped away and I saw his antlers clearly confirming his species. If that were't enough, I almost stumbled in to another deer which I thought was more likely to be a Roe and then accross the valley and in fields opposite, I could clearly see a group of 4 more Fallow deer grazing like cattle.  It was a pretty special day and I can't wait to go back. 

 

I am aware that Fallow Deer can be found easily in Halden Forest, near to Exeter but I wasn't aware that they were living wild near to Mortonhamstead.

 

The first Blackbird fledglings in the garden

It's too wet to undertake anything outdoors today, the 23rd April, St Georges Day. I am pretty sure that had the Dippers not been washed out of their nest last week, as they were, they would certainly have perished over the last 24 hours. The rain has been never ending today and it was a nice surprise to see in the garden, a newly fledged baby Blackbird - Turdus merula. This species breeds in or around my garden every year with their main threat being the local cats and also Magpies - Pica pica. To actually see a healthy youngster, strong enough to avoid at least the cats, and out of the nest where they are not vulnerable to the magpie is very pleasing. Almost every year I find the remains of them on my lawn where cats have killed them, so fingers crossed. It chose anasty day to leave the nest in the wet  but seems healthy enough.

Tree Pipit

After the sadness and disappointment of this weeks Dipper dramas, I have carried on with my obsession....... birds and wildlife.  When one door closes another invariably opens and thats just the way it has panned out.  Firstly the Kingfishers on the rIver Exe here, close to home have for certain got chicks in the nest.  You should know that Kingfishers are a Schedule 1 bird and are subject to special protection. To photograph a Kingfisher nest requires a special license which I have applied for from Natural England, the body responsible for policing the granting of license.  You may be interested to know that license are issued on a quota basis of 1% of the estimated breeding population of the species.  Any license granted is specific to a particular nest and not the bird in general, therefore, because I am aware of two Kingfisher nests, I have applied for two licenses. I have been informed by Natural England that the quota has not been filled for 2012.  There are also numerous conditions that the applicant is required to  provide proof of. These include photographs of 6 none schedule 1 birds involved in nesting activity, in itself quite a hard requirement to fullfill and references from responsible people who are preferably involved in wildlife management or something similar.  Glad to say that I have ticked all of the boxes and hopefully my license applications will be successful but it is by no means a formality, but my fingers are crossed.

This morning I went out back towards the Dipper site to see if there was anything to take not of. . There was no sign whatsoever of adult Dippers and the nest looked a sorry mess. It appears to have been completely submerged yet again since my last visit only two days ago. A drive further afield and to a lovelly area nearer to the "true" Dartmoor was very rewarding.  A "for certain"  Tree Pipit was singing beautifully from the top of a Hawthorn. I took photos just for the record and  to confirm the identity when I got home even though I ws pretty certain. I  was surprised that the photo was as successful as it turned out.  Just notice that the beak is much, much heavier than a that of a Meadow Pipt and this was the first thing that struck me.

Dipper chicks dead!

Regular readers of my blog will know that I hae been monitoring, photographing and recording the events at a White Throated Dipper - (cinclus cinclus) nest site since the end of February. My almost daily visits and a total of well over 100 hours  have recorded many interesting facts and I have gained a real understanding of the behaviour of this most iconic and interesting species. I am attempting to put together a book, a "Devon Dipper Diary" which will be published either in the traditional way or/and online as an iPad app or online book.  Things were going so well until yesterday when 20.8mm of rain fell near to the river's source  miles up stream which led to an almost,  flash flood. The water level rose at an unbelievable rate, flooded in to the nest and prevented the parents from gaining access. The water level quickly receeded but by then the damage was done and the chicks were cold and lifeless in the nest. However, at that  point they were not dead. I warmed them with my own body heat until they  became active and then,  having made a new access hole to the nest, above the water line, replaced them.  The parents quickly returned, and now able to get in to her chicks, the female tried to brood them and the male continued to bring food.  Sadly all to no avail as this morning,  with the river level down 2 feet again,  the  chicks at 7 days old  were dead in the nest.  Their eyes were just about to open and pin feathers were about to emerge from their wings.

 

The female perched opposite, bemused.

 

 

The male singing a territorial song,

 

I sat opposite the nest later on to see what the reaction of the parents was going to be.  Both birds came to the nest, the male with food for his dead chicks, all very sad. I took some photographs but felt a little bit like it wasn't the right thing to do.

Dippers in the flood.

Getting straight to the point...... the Dipper chicks are with 99% certainty, dead!

It had rained  a little bit  off and on all day but by 4 pm it had brightened up. I had always planned to visit late afternoon and early evening.  As I walked across the field and reached the river, immediately my heart sank, the water was so high it was lapping at the bottom of the nest.

 

Water was lapping at the bottom of the nest completely covering the entrance hole and tunnel.

 

 I saw a Dipper nearby so I didn't immediately think that it was a full blown disaster. I quickly concealed myself and then looked properly, there was no entrance hole visible, this was under the water. The majority of the nest was not submerged though. I sat and waited to see if the parents came and it wasn't long before the male arrived with a beak full of food. As you can see, he perched on the nest and tried to find a way in to feed his youngsters.  It was a pathetic spectacle as he searched around the nest, all he time with a beak full of food, trying to get in to the nest.  

 

The male Dipper tries to get in to the nest to feed his chicks.

 

It tried to find a way in to the nest frantically .

 

I quickly made a decision, I decided to cross the river and planned to open up the top of the nest so that the birds could get in to their chicks. It was either give them that chance or let the chicks perish for certain, if they were not dead already that is.  I ran back across the field and down the road to cross by some stepping stones but when I got there the stones were totally submerged as well, I had no way of getting across the river!  There was another way, via a bridge quite a way upstream which is what I did.  I made my way down the side of the swollen river being careful not to fall in and eventually some 30 minutes later I was at the nest which was just below me. I lowered myself down head first towards the nest, holding on with my left hand and praying not to fall in to the torrent. I poked through the top of the nest and sadly I could feel the stone cold chicks, lifeless and seemingly dead. I removed them one by one, cupped them in my hand and blew on them with my warm breath. Miraculously, after 5 minutes or so there was some tiny movement and  they started to come back to life again. I was really heartened by this, with them in my hand I put them in to my arm pit and held them next to my skin, the warmest part of my body.  I had them there for 20 minutes trying to bring up their body temperature.  However, I needed to get them back in to the nest as soon as I could so I took the decision to put them back in and hope for the best.  I tidied up the new entrance hole and retreated back the way I had come.  Back at the hide opposite I watched and waited, and prayed.  Suddenly the female arrived at the nest, after some investigation she entered through the new entrance and to my utter amazement and joy she seemed to start to brood the chicks.

 

The female arrived at the nest and is able to get in to her chicks through the new hole.

 

At one point she did some tidying up of the new entrance and later even emerged to catch some food which she took in to the nest. Whether she fed that to the chicks I will never know, were they alive or had they continued to lose body heat again.  After quite a while the male returned to the scene with a beak full of food, he tried on several occasions to feed his youngsters, perching on the edge of the nest calling to them loudly but sadly he didn't feed them.  I am guessing because they didn't gape for food which was a really bad sign.

 

The male tries to feed the chicks but they do not respond.

 

With all the boulders under water, the male perched on wood washed down river and close to me.

 

 

I am praying that the female was able to brood them enough to  get them active again but I  will not know the answer to that until the morning.  I appreciate that it is almost certainly against the law to take chicks from a nest but my conscience is clear on this.  I have been with this family of Dippers for 7 weeks, almost daily and watched them build a nest, watched them incubate and watched them feeding their chicks for the last 7 days.  It would have been impossible to sit and watch them perish without trying to help.  Perhaps I should have let nature take its course?  But I didn't, I did what I think is right.  However, the chicks have almost certainly died in the nest.  The parents were unable to brood the chicks or feed them for several hours. There is a very small chance that my intervention may have saved them but I am not hopeful.  If they have survived it will be an absolute miracle.

Dipper crisis

I was horrified when I went to the nest site late this afternoon. Last night it rained, not hard, but enough to leave puddles in the road. I guessed that the river would have risen but I wasn't prepared for 2 feet higher though. Every boulder was completely submerged and the river was a torrent.  The Dipper nest was now 1 foot above the waterline but still reasonably safe.  The parent birds were a litle subdued, they flew in with food, aiming for their favourite boulder perches and then at the last minute they would suddenly realise that it wasn't there anymore and veer away to land opposite. Yesterday they carried food to the nest every few minutes but today they were feeding much less. At one point the male was away from the nest for quite an extended period, at least 40 minutes.  The female brooded the chicks for longer periods than yesterday but did emerge from time to time and carried food to them as well. I left the site reasonably content that everything was fine and with the knowledge that the oldest 3 chicks are 7 days old tomorrow.  However, the weather forcast is not good, more heavy rain is on the way, yesterday's rain had added two foot to the river level, if that happens tonight then I fear that the nest will be flooded out and that will be the end of it.  I am keeping everything crossed that they remain safe. Nature is extreme and always takes it's course.

 

The chicks from Monday, I hope that they survive the night and the flood water. 

 

 

I had an interesting encounter this afternoon, a drake Goosander arrived right in front of me and of course, he was also in front of the nes as wellt. When that had happened previously, (albeit a female), the Dippers were less than happy but today they didn't seem too worried. The duck was happy to "haul-out" and preen but then it caught sight of movement and quite quickly moved away, but it was good to see it so close up

.

 

Dipper Song and latest update

 

Dipper song

Click on the button here to listen to the male Dipper singing in front of the nest. Perhaps you don't realise but as you can hear, they are beautiful songsters. There is some difficulty with background noise, basically the tumbling water and in the middle of the clip, a Pheasant calls from the adjoining woods.

It's interesting to note that you can clearly see the "egg-tooth" on the beaks of the chicks in the nest now at 5 days old. In accordance with the law, these chicks were not disturbed or handled by me but checked in accordance with the nest recording scheme run by the British Trust for Ornithology.

But more about yesterdays watching which was incredibly interesting.  The chicks are doing really well, I peered in to the nest which wasn't too hard because the opening has become larger due to constant use and the male's habit of hanging on as he feeds his chicks.  I could see  them really well and also noted that,  at 5 days old they have trebled in size already. Feeding by the parents is none stop and at times both birds were back and forth in less than a minute, constantly feeding the obviously voracious youngsters.  The female left-off from brooding and hunted for prey right in front of the nest, taking just seconds to find prey which she delivered, flopped back caught more and then delivered that morsel about three times in a minute. The male however seems to spend comparatively  longer   catching food and when he comes back to the nest he is usually carrying larger insects such as mayfly. Yesterday I saw him catch  a small fish which he dealt with, Kingfisher-like, beating it to death, he didn't bring that to the nest but flew opposite to eat it himself, incredible that he could make the judgement that it was too large and not suitable for the nestlings.  There seemed to be an uneasy relationship between the parent birds, at one point they displayed to each other and then tumbled in to the water rolling around as though fighting but is more likely to be a precursor to mating?

 

 

Dipper chicks day 4

I had my first opportunity to photograph the baby Dippers today and I am very glad to say that everything is progressing splendidly.  I watched from under cover nearby and with a clear view of the nest then  as soon as the female left  the nest and flew up river to feed I took the opportunity to check the nest.  It is not necessary for me to do this daily but I am keen to know if the chicks are thriving.   By using a small LED light I can see the chicks in the nest  quickly without too much disturbance. The chicks, all 4, are now covered in very long charcoal-grey down, they are darker than they were on the day of hatching. I have been able to record some interesting behaviour today.  The female left the nest several times in the 2 hours that I was watching this afternoon, not only to feed herself but also returned with food to carry back to the nest. This is a contradiction to other descriptions  of breeding Dippers that I have read that suggest that the female does not help to feed the chicks until they are at least 10 days old. In this  pair the female is already  deffinitely helping to  feed the chicks in the nest today and the chicks are 3 and 4 days old now.   The male in particular is very industrious and constantly,  either  food or delivering it to the nest.  There is going to be a video clip posted in the next half an hour so please check back. 

 

At the Dipper nest on Friday 13th April

At the nest this evening it was good to see the male working like a demon collecting food for his  4 chicks. What struck me was not only how efficient and skilled he was at finding food, but how much available insect life there must be. I kept a really accurate record of the time between visits to the nest.  In  41 minutes  from 18.11 to18.51, the male visted a total of 10 times.   I have to confess that this level of feeding far exceeded what I expected. The prey being fed is larger than I expected and seems to be mainly Mayfly as I expected it would be.

 

Here the male (on the left)  displays with a mouthfull of insects, to the female who had just left the nest coincidentally as he had arrived to feed their chicks.

 

 

The male about to fly up with food for the chicks.

Yellowhammer - Emberiza citronella

 

This shows the habitat of the Yellowhammer and Warblers that were so common here today.

Spring has sprung! The warblers are coming thick and fast, some cuckoos have been heard and no doubt the rest are not far behind.  I love Dartmoor in the summer and spring so today, I drove past the river and the Dippers nest (but of course I went back in the evening), but instead, I made my way out to a lovely spot that is not actually on Dartmoor but  geologically has all the same features.  Last year when I discovered this beautiful unexplored site I had seen Yellowhammer, Linnet, warblers and lots of insects.  I want to get photos of Whitethroat and I know that they are about to arrive and when they do they will be singing to establish territories, and this is the time to get a good photograph or two, at least that's the plan!  I was a bit early for Whitethroat but there was at least a dozen Willow Warbler  singing and showing beautifully.  As you can see from the photograph above,  it's a very special place.  I noticed that a Willow Warbler was regularly flying to the tree in the foreground of the picture.  I hid behind a gorse bush and waited for it to reappear. A bird landed on the tree in front of me...... it was a gorgeous female Yellowhammer, one of my favourite birds.  I managed a few photos but apart from that, it was quite a treat to see this really nice species and so close. 

 

 

Female Yellowhammer, note the rusty-coloured rump, in the much rarer Cirl Bunting, the rump would be grey.

 

 

A female Yellowhammer looking her best at this time of year, the male is bright canary yellow. 

 

Willow Warbler, just arrived on migration.

 

 

Thursday 12 April, the 4th egg hatches.

I have bee suffering with a bad back, it's made me realise how important good health is. It has been really debilitating and I have had to push through the pain barrier to even get dressed, let alone  lie in the hide and watch the Dippers, but these last few days have been so important that I needed to be there to check the nest.   Yesterday I had discovered  three chicks and one unhatched egg in the nest. When I checked again today there were 4 chicks.  This confirmed a few important facts. Incubation had been 17 days.  Finding just 3 chicks in the nest  yesterday and a 4th today could mean only one thing. Incubation had begun after 3 eggs were laid and  before the clutch was complete. One of the things that I wanted to acheive by watching and studyng this pair of Dippers in the intense way that I have , was to establish my own facts rather than rely on other peoples research and information which is often recycled, 3rd hand information rather than anything based on private study.  All previous information that I have read, told me that incubation would not start until the clutch was complete, in other words, after the 4th egg.  This is to  ensure that all the chicks  hatch on the same day and have an equal chance of survival, However, this clearly is not the case and 3 chicks will have a head start on their younger sibling. In times of food shortage, the younger chick in the nest would certainly perish but in a season when food is plentiful this is not an issue.   The male bird is already proving to be a brilliant father. I watched him for an hour tonight, he was working almost tirelessly catching prey undrwater and then delivering it to the chicks.  At one point I counted to 30 before he emerged again, but mostly he would spend just a second or two delivering his morsel. he seems quite happy to catch food from around the nest so this will give me some great opportunities to watch him feeding as well.

Dippers. The eggs hatch on cue!

 

The Male Dipper visits the nest to feed his newly hatched chicks.

 

I waited again until the evening to visit the nest, thankfully the water level hadn't risen any further, infact it had brobably gone down an inch or two. I waited for the female to leave the nest before moving down to check the nest.  I am really glad to be able to report that 3 of the eggs have hatched and three healthy chicks are in the nest.  One egg is either infertile, or "dead-in-shell" or more likely incubation started with the 3rd egg and not the 4th.  If this is the case this will contradict everything that I have read previously which seemed to suggest that incubation always commenced when the clutch was complete.  If the 4th egg should hatch tomorrow, then this will confirm that incubation started on Sunday,  when there was only 3 eggs in the nest. I am looking forward to finding the answer tomorrow.  The chicks were pink skinned which was a surprise, I expected them to be dark. 

I watched the male already working hard finding food and delivering it to the nest, even if I had not checked for  myself, I would have known that there were chicks in the nest just by the male's change in behaviour. 

 

The male about to fly up to the nest with food.

This morning I took some photographs of Nuthatches and a fine male Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

Male Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Male Nuthatch

 

 

10 April

The latest from the Dipper nest.

I went to check the nest at around 5.pm. The river has risen at least a foot and is running faster than it has for the last 6 weeks.  Glad to say that it would still need to rise another 18 inches before it flooded out the nest, not totally out of the question but a possibility. I waited for the female to leave the nest so that I could check if the eggs had hatched.  I was slightly concerned, there was no sign of  the male and I had no idea if the female was in the nest.  As I lay watching and waiting I surveyed the scene in front of me.  My "pile of logs hide" was no more, just a few logs remained.  All the birds favourite boulders were completely submerged and the river was a torrent and still no male. After not too long, the female emerged from the nest and flew upstream, I quickly checked the nest......... no eggs yet, it took me 10 seconds and I was away from the scene almost as quickly.  I went back to the  river crossing and went over to the cover tucked away in the holly bush to watch for a while.  The sun was shining brightly and a was thrilled to see that, as spring has progressed the position of the sun at this time of the evening was actually illuminating the nest hole.  That is a real exciting development because it means that there is going to be a window of opportunity when the nest is going to have enough light on it to allow some proper photographs, very exciting to be truthful. But, still no male!  Then just after I had whispered "come on Dipper", there he was.  The only remaining boulder perch was just a few feet in front of me, he had no alternative to use it.  He seemed confused with the change of scene.  I didn't have my camera with me, but not to worry there is always tomorrow. 

Siskin

Bullfinch (male)

Bullfinch (male)

Bullfinch (female)

Great-crested Grebe

9th April 2012. No Dipper chicks yet.

Before you start reading this Blog entry please be aware that I am a registered member of the BTO's nest recording scheme.

It's now 17 days since the first Dipper egg was laid in the nest  at the territory that I have been keeping a close watch on since the beginning of February. This week is a crucial one. It is said that incubation will not begin until the last egg of the clutch is laid and there are 4 eggs in this clutch. It is likely that incubation commenced on the 25th March which coincided with the 4th egg, however as part of my records and individual observations of this pair, I need to confirm that  this is the case. There are several possibly variables.  Apart from the above there is the possibility that incubation could take 16 days or even less.  It is also possible that incubation could have comenced after the laying of 3 or even 2 eggs.  Only discovering the date that chicks hatch can this be confirmed. The earliest date that hatching could have ocurred is today. It was important that I checked the nest contents today. I can confirm that there are still four eggs in the nest and as yet no chicks. My method of checking, in accordance with the laid down procedure and advice from the BTO, is to sit unobserved, watching the nest.  When the female has departed  the nest is the time to make your move.  My observations for the last 17 days have shown me that the female, after leaving the nest, has the habit of flying away upstream and is away for 8 minutes.  This is ample time to quietly and without fuss, check the contents of the nest, but  after first confirming  that male is away from the area with the female.  To check this nest requires a wet foot as it is situated above water on a vertical moss covered bank.

Dippers on Easter Sunday

The weather forcast for the next couple of days is for rain and it is possible  that I won't get the chance to check on the nest tomorrow, I hope to be able to because it is the start of an important week for the Dippers.  I decided to have a quick check of the nest site and the breeding pair late this evening.   The male was in front of the nest when I got there, it's always good to see him at the nest, confirming that there isn't a problem. Nothing special to add from this evening except that the male stood in front of the nest for quite a while, he was making that sibillant churring sound here and there, and had he got a response from the female in the form of a churring answer, I'm sure  he would have flown up to her but he didn't.  Considering that it's now 16 days since the first egg was laid and they are due to hatch within the next day or so, it's a surprise that she didn't invite hime to feed her. It will probably be easy to know when the eggs have started hatching because I am expecting the male to deliver food to the nest, that will be a change in recent behaviour.  Just before dusk, the male was still in front of the nest and still making his churring noise.  I felt a bit sorry for him, because he hasn't taken part in the incubation.  He is detached from what is going on and has kept quite  a lonely vigil for the last 16 days. Incubation is said to last 16 or 17 days and also to start on the day of the laying of the final egg of the clutch. This is to ensure that all eggs hatch simultaneously, not all birds use this syncronised incubation. Some species will incubate after the second egg meaning that chicks hatch on different days. The benefit of this is that the older chicks are inclined to get the "lions" share of the food brought to the nest.  Only when their is a plentiful supply do all the chicks survive.  In Dippers, all the chicks will have an equal chance of survival. 

 Below, the Male Dipper finds food as he waits in front of the nest.

A Roe Deer Carcase

Something that really excites me is a deer carcass so when my friend Dick sent me a message that there was a dead deer in the field adjoining his lovely house, well that was just too much.  His house is in a glorious setting, not too far from my home but seemingly in the middle of nowhere, next to a bird filled wood that has nesting Buzzards, Jays and Green Woodpeckers as well as all the usual common woodland birds. More of that when I have managed to get some pictures to post  here, this is on my list of "projects". 

But back to the carcass.  I positioned a trail camera next to it to get a photo of what came in to feed, but more importantly I wanted to find out if it was going to be worth setting up a hide nearby.  So far the only thing recorded on the camera has been Carrion Crow but I know with certainty that something,probably a fox, has been feeding on it every night and inspite of about a kilo of flesh and guts being taken unforunately the camera hasn't recorded any of this for some strange reason.  I find these trail cameras to be unpredictably unreliable. Very frustrating.

More Hoopoe photos from last Wednesday and Thursday

Here is a sequence featuring the Teignmouth Golf Course Hoopoe, feeding on a Leatherjacket.  It first turned up on Tuesday and I caught up with it on Wednesday late afternoon. Hoopoe are a common bird of the Mediteranean region, Portugal, Spain and Southern France and North Africa.   At this time of the year there is migratory movement north.  If conditions are favourable, or not, as the case may be, some birds over-shoot and a few end up in the British Isles where their presence causes quite a stir.   They are about the size of a Collared Dove, very exotic particularly in flight.

 

 

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An update from the Dipper Nest

I watched the nest yesterday for a couple of hours in the afternoon. It's now 14 days since egg laying began and incubation has thrown up a few interesting facts. To start with, the female, who does all the incubation has now developed the habit of leaving the nest to feed every  30 minutes or so. As I have said before,  she is away from the nest for just 8 minutes, literally to the second.  The male is not always aware that she has departed and yesterday I watched him arrive with a healthy beak full of adult Mayflies.  This is the first  time that I have seen the male, or female for that matter, feeding on adult Mayfly and my guess would be that the entire breeding cycle has been timed perfectly so that when there are chicks in the nest there is going to be a proliferation of Mayfly. He called to the female  from a boulder close to the nest but didn't get any response because she was away feeding.  He continued calling her but didn't fly up to her with the flies.  I made the assumption that had she been in the nest she would have responded and he would have delivered the insects. I am certain that this is the case but I haven't heard her calling from the nest. before and it was interesting to realise that he was waiting for a response from her. Eventually after flying from boulder to boulder in front of the nest, he decided to eat the food himself but not before he had spent at least 5 minutes calling her.   To think that the arrival of chicks in the nest has been timed to coincide with the  Mayfly hatch  is a stunning fact. Quite how that has been judged is a mysterious wonder to me.
 

A few changes with the Blog's layout.

I have received some helpful comments recently about the difficulty that some people, particularly iPad users, have when reading the Blog. Apparently some people couldn't view the full extent of images, the right hand side of larger pictures being cut off. I have therefore altered the layout of the Blog, in the hope that this will now be corrected.  I would appreciate it if readers could email me and let me know if the problem is now corrected, thank you in anticipation.

 

An interesting day, and 1 good picture.

 I revisited the Golf Course at Teignmouth this morning, the hope of some more views proved too much to resist. It proved much more difficut than yesterday but eventually I did get a nice picture. The bird's presence as you would expect has caused quite a lot of interest and the reason for the difficulty was the presence of just too many interested people. It would have been fine if they had all stayed in one spot but in the end because people were so spread out, the bird disappeared in to the rough scrub off the Golf Course.  However, just as yesterday, I had seen that it favoured a specific area and unlike the rest of the "birding mob" who chased around like lunatics, I just went and sat down close to where I had seen it fly to regularly before the mob grew to riot like proportions....... and here is the result!  A very satisfying conclusionto the morning. It's not good to be too competetive but I was very smug to think that two days running I have got such good views against all the odds.

Hoopoe in South Devon

After returning home at lunchtime from my daily check of the Dippers nest....... everything is going well by the way....... I read on line that a Hoopoe had been seen near to Teignmouth, in fact on the golf course on the hill above the town. I didn't realise when I decided to go and see if I could find it, what a great experience it was going to be. At first when I arrived, I was greeted by a couple of other birders who I know well, it was nice to see them!  They told me that the bird had developed a habit already, of flying to a specific spot next to one of the "tees".  At first, even when it flew in, I was too far away for anything other than a nice distant view. Eventually as you would imagine, golfers put it up and it flew to an area just down the hillside, but was back at his favourite spot within a few minutes only to be scared off again this time, by a chap having a stroll along the path.  When it flew off, I grabbed my gear and quickly put on my gillie suit, lay in the grass completely covering myself with dry grass and very painful prickly dead gorse.  I was pretty confident that it would turn up again, and if it did, I would only be 20 feet away now and with the light coming from the perfect direction.   I got genuinely excited, including butterflies in the stomach as I waited for it to arrive........ and there it was, right in front of me but totally unaware that I was there. It was feeding on leatherjackets, the larva of Cranefly which it frantically dug out with it's long beak, a perfect tool for the job. The brilliant views that I was experiencing  couldn't last because people without any care, or common sense, just walked towards it, I watched them getting closer and closer in their bright jackets and gaudy gear and obviously it wasn't having any of it, and off it went!  One chap, who I won't embarrass by describing or mentioning by name, didn't know that I was there, hidden as I was in the grass and gorse.  His behaviour was reprehensible, he thought that he was alone with the bird and he tried to get as close as he could, disturbing it from it's feeding with no regard for it whatsoever.  It flew off from it's feeding which I have to be honest really annoyed me.  I emerged from my concealment, now there was just me and him, and I passed on some advice to him about his lack of proper fieldcraft and frankly his poor behaviour. He stood with a guilty look on his face knowing that he was totally out of order and he had been caught being  the kind of person that we all despise....... or should! 

 

 

Something completely different

The Rabbit - Oryctolagus cuniculus is in plague proportions currently here in Devon. They are normally mainly nocturnal, but in the fields and roadside verges nearby  you can usually see them both night and day at the moment.  There are even very young animals already proving that they have had a very early breeding season.  Just before dusk last night I watched them in a field  close to home and one was very stupid and didn't run for cover as they normally do. Apart from a lack of wariness, it was perfectly healthy.  I took a few photos and the results were quite pleasing so I have included one here.  It's interesting to see that it has a ripped ear, obviously the product of a fight.  I am going to visit this warren regularly over the next few months, you never no what I might be lucky enough to see.

Things progressing as hoped for at the Dipper nest

Everything safe and well at the Dippers nest,  the male visiting the nest after catching some prey and the female still  leaving the nest to feed more regularly than you would imagine.  At one time she emerged from the nest with a beech leaf, dunked it in to the water and took it back to the nest.  Natures way of ensuring the correct level of humidy in the nest no doubt. I am assuming that incubation started last Sunday or monday, day 7 or 8 of incubation.

The Robin and the Bee

I decided to give the Dippers a rest today, things there are progressing as planned and until the eggs hatch in 10 days or so, there is not going to be a lot different to see and report. I decided to have a look along the Alphin Brook close to home and this proved interesting if not particularly exotic. I watched a Robin who was feeding on flies attracted to horse manure. I was trying to freeze the bird in flight and when I looked at the pictures taken I was pleased and very surprised to see that a bee had crept in to the picture.

 

I also managed to get him flying as well.

A Small Tortoiseshell, always nice to see. This picture was taken with a 500mm lens and this gives it a nice background and a very pleasing image indeed!

31 March

My observations today highlighted some slight changes in behaviour from both birds. The male spent the majority of the time that I was watching, perched on a boulder in midstream. When I had last been at the nest site two days ago, the male had been quite keen to visit the nest often, either to feed or to strengthen the pair bond, but today this didn't happen. He seemed content to wait for his mate to emerge and then accompany her when she went off to feed, which she did at least once every hour.   On another occasion,  first a Goosander and then a Heron arrived in front of the nest and this caused a degree of panic from both birds and with the arrival of the Heron, the female left the nest and both birds rapidly flew upstream quickly and away from the scene.   There was also some disturbance from walkers and a barking dog in the adjacent wood.  This certainly stressed the male who 'escaped" upstream by diving in to the water and swimming underwater upstream.  I have read that Dippers sometimes escape predators by diving underwater and I am sure that this was an example of this and the first time that I have seen this behaviour.  It wasn't long before the female returned to the nest as normal.  Incubation is progressing nicely on the 6th day of  incubation.

29th March

The female returns to the nest.

This is the male visiting the female to strengthen the pair bond.

I observed a couple of interesting pieces of behaviour this morning.  The female is very quiet in everything she does and when she is the Dipper that I can see in front of me, I am quite certain that it is her by her quiet demeanour. This morning for example I saw her slip out of the nest and then fly up river.  After a few minutes a bird returned and I knew immediately it was the male, he flew in calling very loudly as normal and then immediately started singing to proclaim his territory. A minute or two later she arrived back and very quietly  started to look for prey underwater of course.  The male sat waiting for her, she flew to him and then they both flew off back up river together. I checked the time that she had been off her eggs, yesterday it was 8 minutes. It was around 8 minutes again when she flew back and very quietly slipped back in to the nest.  I need to confirm this with many more observations over the next week or so, but it appears that the birds have an "internal clock" that instinctively dictates their behaviour to a strict timetable.  Hence the male visits the female in the nest every 30 or 35 minutes.  This morning I watched him fly up to her and make quite a noisy fuss as he communicated with her, hanging on to the nest with the majority of his body mass inside the nest.  Previously I had thought he was feeding her but I am 100% certain that he did not carry anything to the nest on this occasion. It's obviously just a way of confirming and strengthening the pair bond. I managed to get some almost acceptable in-flight photos today, perseverance pays off in the end.

 

Dippers nest, laying is complete and incubation has begun.

 

The female returns to the nest.  For the technically minded, ISO 6400 and a shutter speed of 1/2000 second

 

 

The male at his "loose-end" in front of the nest today.

 

The morning was spent trying to get better photographs of the Dippers flying up in to the nest.  I am running out of ideas as to how I can improve now, it just isn't bright enough to get the shot that I am after. In the end, having spent most of the morning trying, I pretty much had to accept defeat and be grateful for what I am seeing and if I manage a decent photo, in-flight, then that's a bonus I suppose.  I  am learning a lot about breeding Dippers as you would expect and I hope that you (the reader) is learning something as well.  It's been interesting to see the behaviour of both birds at this stage, the incubation. The male seems to be almost at a "lose end", sitting around waiting for something to happen, from time to time he goes off to find some food for himself and the female.  When he returns to the nest site, I can hear him from quite a distance away, he always calls loudly (and musically) before he lands on one of the nearby boulders.  I take this as a signal to the sitting female that he is nearby. After landing he will sing for a minute or two before flying  up to the nest, only  half entering, and hanging on as he gives the female his offering. Then out he will come after as long as it takes for her to take the food,  flopping down in to the water and swimming to the nearby boulder. When he is in the nest he always makes that churring sibilant noise that I heard when they were first building and when they swopped over building duties. This is undoubtedly to get the female's attention so that she is ready to take food from him.  It again seems that the male will bring food twice in around 70 minutes, almost like clockwork.  However on two occasions as I watched this morning, the female left the nest, presumably to drink, find her own food and defecate. On the first occasion the male was unaware.  She was away from the nest for 8 minutes.  The second time the male accompanied her and they both flew upstream to feed.  Interestingly both birds are prepared to fly several hundred yards away from the nest to feed rather than around the nest area although there does not appear to be a pattern to this feeding behaviour as the male is also quite content to feed in front of the nest.  On the second occasion that she vacated the nest I quickly took the opportunity to check the size of the clutch. This is important to know for my BTO nest record card. As refered to previously I am collecting important data about dates of building, egg laying  clutch size and the viabilty of the nest as part of the BTO's nest recording scheme, hence my reason for checking the nest.  There will be no need for me to check the nest again until around the hatching date when  the date of hatching will be recorded.  Dippers are said to lay a clutch of four or five eggs, ours have four! 

 

In gorgeous light, with the male bird very close it gave me the chance to get some close-ups of his birds eye.

 

This detail of the male's wing shows a certain amount of "wear and tear" on the wings.

 

 

27 March, Dippers, Chiffchaff and Blue Tits

Now that the female has started to incubate her clutch of eggs which takes 17 days, there is going to be a lengthy period when not much is happening.  The pattern of behaviour that I observed this morning is likely to be repeated daily and it's going to be a quiet period in the breeding cycle. When I arrived I couldn't see any Dippers, I assumed that the female was in the nest and the male was away finding food.  AsI lay under cover watching a bird arrived, splashing in to the water and then swimming up to the rocks beneath the nest before flying up. It was silent as it entered the nest and I had the feeling that this was the female, this proved to be correct because the noisy male arrived a few minutes later, singing his call as he flew in and then breaking in to song before he  visited the nest, perhaps with food but I couldn't be sure.  I have established that there is approximately 30 minutes between the males feeding visits to the nest so it can get a little tedious as you wait with nothing going on. Sometimes the male sits nearby, singing away and preening before he flies up or down stream to find food. Twice this morning the female left the nest to find her own food, whether this means that she has not started to incubate properly yet I am not certain, but as "sitting" progresses I will be able to see if this is normal behaviour.

With glorious sunshine at around lunchtime, on my walk back, there was a lot of bird activity includin singing Chiffchaffs, Blackcap Warblers and the usual Blue Tits.

 

A beautiful spring day and now four eggs.

 

From up river and away from the nest, the male feeds in the shallow water next to the waterfall.

 

I travelled to the River at around noon. As expected and hoped for, there was a Dipper by the nest when I got there.  I slid under the cover without the bird which was the male, again as I expected, being none the wiser.  I sat and watched him for a few minutes, he flew up to the nest carrying an insect.  I am pretty sure that he was feeding the sitting female who by now should have been sitting on a nice clutch of 4 eggs. He was noisy as he delivered his morsel to her. Exactly 30 minutes later he was back to bring her more food which he did in the same noisy fashion.  Then around 30 minutes later he flew up to her again and I could clearly see that he was carrying food still as he emerged  again, this time he flew back down still with the insect.  This intrigued me at first but then I saw the female feeding in the shallows just upstream. He obviously thought she was in the nest the same as I! After just a short while she went up in to the nest and he displayed to her as she went in leaving him alone again on the rock.  Later on in the afternoon after I had watched the Wagtails further upstream  I returned to watch again and saw her emerge again, both birds flew off upstream and I guessed that they would be away for at least a few minutes giving me the opportunity to check the nest and confirm that yes, she has got 4 eggs now.  I quickly went back "under cover" and waited to see her return to the nest which she did, everything is going just perfectly. 

Eggs at my Dipper site

I said yesterday that I was 99% certain that egg laying had begun but didn't feel that it was safe to check. Behaviour had been so different than on any of my previous visits in the last 6 weeks.  I have witnessed site selection and nest building and if all progressed  then eggs were due any day now. I couldn't visit the site until this evening and when I arrived there was no sign whatsoever of either bird, even though I watched for 30 minutes or so. I decided to check the nest for eggs and am glad to report that it contained two.  Knowing that eggs are laid in the morning on consecutive days I am pretty sure that I was correct in yesterdays assessment. To me there is nothing more beautiful than a bird's egg, it is the epitome of everything that is special in nature.  Knowing that a bird will only lay an egg when conditions are considered perfect makes it special to be able to  share in the intimate parts of it's life.  The last 5 weeks have been building to this moment and I am thrilled that she has started to lay her clutch, as hoped for.  There is still a long way to go but things are progressing just as I hoped.

 

Goosander feeds on Lamprey

I have got so much to Blog about today that it's hard to know where to start, it's approaching 10.00 pm and I have only just got to writing the blog because I have spent most of the afternoon and evening sorting through the photos taken at today's session which was one of the most interesting that I have ever had.

It started with some really different behaviour from the Dippers.  The male was mid-stream on his favourite boulder when I got there at around 8.30. I guessed that the female was in the nest and that was confirmed when after a few minutes he flew up to the nest, went in and  flopped back out after 10 seconds or so.  Every 20 minutes this behaviour was repeated and on one occasion I actually saw the male catch something in the stream and take it up in to the nest. This confirmed it, he was actually feeding the female in the nest.  At 10.30, she left the nest and as far as I could tell had been in there for two hours. I was never confident that I wouldn't disturb them so I resisted the temptation to check for eggs but to be honest I didn't feel I needed to look because I am 99% certain that she had laid this morning.

I decided to leave the Dipper nest site and move up to the hide further up stream. Yesterday I had seen a male Grey Wagtail around there carrying nesting material.  I thought that if I waited long enough I would be able to see where the nest was by watching for them carrying.  That's the way it turned out and I know exactly where the Wagtails are building now, a real result!   After only a few minutes, I looked  down stream and coming my way was a female Goosander.  I snapped off a few shots in the distance not realising that within the next few minutes it would be there in front of me, just 6 feet away…… literally.  When it first dived and emerged with a fish I cursed because I missed the photo opportunity. Not to worry though, because over the next 20 minutes it came and went fishing constantly and caught about 10 fish.  I realised  quite quickly that it was feeding on Brook Lamprey, they were trapped at the foot of the waterfall and the bird had a feast. Lamprey develop as larva in silty water and then, as adults migrate up-stream to fast flowing clean clear water over pebbles and rocks to breed. It seemed that with the water level low the lamprey were prevented from moving past the waterfall and were probably in the deep pool there in numbers. It was great for the duck, and just as good for me.

Then as if that wasn't enough for one day, suddenly the Wagtails who were up in there nest, emerged and were very agitated.  A Grey Squirrel was there only inches  from the nest, and 6 feet from me.  suddenly I realised who had predated the Dippers nest there last year.  I doubt whether the Grey Wagtails are going to be successful at this nest site, the Squirrel seemed to be on a mission and I don't think that it was accidental that he was there. 

 

March 22

Dipper hanging from the nest yesterday.

22nd March and still no eggs yet. I had a comment left on the blog today from someone who was questioning the legality of checking for egg laying at my Dipper nest.  I suppose that this is a reasonable question to ask so I thought that it was appropriate to mention that I am in actual fact signed up to the British Trust for Ornithology's Nest Recording Scheme. Part of the recording of data requires that I note the date of the laying of the first egg and also the size of the clutch. There is no need to check again until chicks hatch. You can hardly find out when an egg is laid without actually looking!  The data collected is of paramount importance to the BTO who use the collated data from thousands of records. Information about suitability of habitat, and changes in reproduction and successes are analysed. Trends can then be monitored and action taken if it required.  The recording of egg laying is of vital significance.  However, there are very clear "rules" to observe to  ensure that the safety of the nest is maintained.  Interestingly scientific research has concluded hat the recording of nests by recorders has no impact whatsoever on  the viability and success of the nest.  I have contacted Bob privately to let him know that my checking of the nest is being undertaken in the name of science and under the auspices of the BTO.

Today, the Dippers were still around the nest and the female went inside but only once while I was there. Both birds were seen up river as normal, well away from the nest site.  When I went back in the late afternoon, again they were both way up river.

This morning I had found a freshly killed Pheasant close to the edge of the river. It had been partly eaten.  When I went back later on, it was where it had been before but much more had been taken.  I moved it to opposite one of my hides and I am hoping that when I go back tomorrow I might be lucky and get some interesting views of the scavengers coming to clean up the carcass. 

 

Dipper in flight, some success at last.

 

A bit about the image and how I planned for it and carried it through to a modicum of success. 

 I noticed that the nest protrudes out from the bank and reaalised that I could buld a little cover amongst the brancches of a holly bush, not far from the nest and with a clear view of the comings and goings. I did a good job of building it and concealing it both from the Dippers below me and just as importantly  from any walkers that might pass by on the path through the woodland adjacent. I made the front, the bit that the Dippers could see, from dead wood, leaves and fern fronds.  It worked really well and reminded me of a machine gun emplacement in miniature.  The rest of it was wrapped with old cam netting and then everything was disguised again with dead leaves grasses and ferns.  I had to work really quickly while the birds were away from the site but the majority was completed from the inside, taking a leaf out of the Dippers book so to speak.Whe I got there this morning it wasn't long before the birds gave me the chance of a photograph (see below) but my 500 lens didn't capture the bird, the field of vision was not big enough to capture the action, the bird was throughthis field of vision in a fraction of time and all I got was either a head or a tail.  I changed the lens to my 200 which meant that I could see more of the scene in front of me. I focused on the nest and set the camera to manual so that the focus was fixed and wouldn't "hunt".  The ligt was taken caer of by using the manual setting because I knew that anything less than 1/2000 sec. wasn't quick enough to freeze the action. The ISO had to be set at 3200 to enable enough light in to the camera, hence the slightly un-natural and grainy look of the finished image.  Then I waited again for the bird to arrive and as it flew up to the nest from the boulder below, I pressed the shutter and took 6 images in a second.  Somewhere in the middle of this mini series of 6 was the photo, not perfect by a long shot, but getting there at last. 

Yesterday the lack of Dippers at the nest had caused me just a tiny bit of concern, it had been such a departure from their behaviour on previous days.  Imagine my delight therefore, when at 07.30 this morning,  there they were on the rocks in front of me, they arrived from up river excitedly, the male singing his musical call and displaying to his mate who was carrying a beech leaf.   The difference today though was that  I was in a new position and looking from a different angle.  I had been excited at the prospect of getting some good photos from here but the pictures that I finished up with today, exceeded all of my expectations.The female brought and deposited several leaves during the 4 hours that I was there, visiting about 6 times, far fewer than earlier in the week.   She was always accompanied by the male but he has now stopped getting involved with building or lining the nest.   Instead, standing guard beneath and at times singing loudly. Some interesting behaviour occurred from the male who, as he sat on the rocks beneath, eventually got tired of waiting and flew up to the nest to seemingly encourage the female to emerge.  He did this on several occasions staying in the nest for only seconds. Both birds were around the nest territory, but not constantly, up until 1130.  This is roughly the same pattern of behaviour that I witnessed last year.  They appear to back to the habit of "domestics" in the morning and feeding in the afternoon.   A  quick check of the nest before I departed revealed no eggs yet.  Having seen her with "nest-lining" leaves often this morning, I may re-assess my prediction of egg laying which I was expecting today or tomorrow.

 

This picture and the one above is actually the male flying up to "chivvy" the female up.

 

This one is a micro-split second from being perfect, it shows the male turning away from the nest and if you look really carefully you can see that he isn't actually attached to anything. He has let go of the nest and is turning to fly off and away.

 

The female, just needed a faster shutter speed to freeze the action, but worthy of posting because it shows her with a leaf, used to line the nest of course.