February 24th

 

Amazing close up view of a male Dipper.

 

This is a minute by minute account of my session in the hide today which turned in to the best of the year so far.
........I was set up today by 9.40, a little later than I would have preferred. It's quiet with no sign of Dippers! The weather is bright with clear sky and scattered clouds, it's unusually warm for the time of year. The water level has dropped slightly and returned to normal, important because some of yesterday's submerged boulders are now exposed again. These boulders make ideal perches for Dippers and Wagtails. I saw a pair of Grey Wagtails on the walk down and now other birds are singing loudly around the hide. It is almost spring after all. 20 minutes or so later and a pair of Goosanders have just flown upstream and past the hide giving me extremely close views of this interesting fish-eating duck. They are known as sawbills because of the serrated edges to the bill which enables them to hold on to their slippery fish prey. They are reviled by game anglers because of their preferences to the same kinds of habitat and water that is also preferred by Salmon and Trou so you can guess the conflict issues that arise. When Goosanders flew past me last week in the same manner they eventually made their way back to me in front of the hide but unfortunately I wasn't able to picture them. I am hoping this isn't going to be the case today. At 10.24, still no Dipper which is quite normal, I will sit it out until some action happens. At 11.06 still no Dipper but I have had an interesting few minutes never the less. I watched a Grey Squirrel digging up and eating his buried treasures on the bank opposite. It made for some good photogenic shots with the 500 lens doing it's stuff very well. We also had a female Wagtail on the waterfall....... where are the Dippers?
The time has moved on to 11.27 and at last I have a Dipper in my sights. Not actually with me yet but about 200 metres down stream. This usually means that it will make it's way to this favourite area of river........ and hopefully the nest site! When it does, I am ready, the light has improved a little. I can actually see the bird feeding now. It has just flown from its backside perch and flopped in to the water to feed in the usual fashion. I can only see one but just lately they are never too far from each other. Its now much closer to me sitting on a favoured midstream boulder and at the moment dealing with something it has just found. 1135 and I have lost sight of it........ but there it is again now even closer........ just as expected.

 

The male Dipper arrived on the log just below me.

 

 

He preened trying to make out that he had no interest in the nest.

 

 

 

 

He started to get excited.

I stopped writing at that point because It was starting to get interesting. Suddenly the one was joined by his/her mate and then the male flew on to the branch as you can see. He spent a few minutes nonchalantly preening and trying to make out that he wasn't interested. Then after several minutes the female suddenly came in to view very close behind with a beak full of nesting material.

 

He got very excited when he saw her and greeted her with a display.

They then both flew to the boulder even nearer to me and then she was up in to the nest to deposit the nesting material. He immediately left the nest site and she disappeared yet again without me seeing her leave. A few minutes later a Dipper flew from upstream and back down river, probably to join up with it's mate. What a thrill, nest building which is said to take up to three weeks to complete is going well. I have no idea if this is earlier than last year. In 2011 the first eggs was laid on March 26, a month off yet.