Wherever you find Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) you are very likely to find Grey Wagtails because they share the same kind of habitat requirements even if they don't feed in the same way. And so it proved this morning. I went to try and get some good photos of Dippers which wasn't 100% successful, but even if I didn't get the best shots of Dippers today, I did get a few nice shots of a male Grey Wagtail. The pair of Dippers are doing well. I got quite acquainted with them this morning. At first I hadn't been too sure which was the male and which was the female but when I saw them together this morning it was obvious. This male is a spanking well coloured and bold bird. The female is doing almost all of the nest building but I did see the male up in the nest. I tried very hard to get some good flight shots but. even though I improved on the shots from the other day, I am sure I can do better. I photographed the male displaying to his female, they almost copulated but not quite.
My experience with Dippers has shown me that the female carries beach leaves to line the nest and this is a sure sign that the nest is almost finished. When I first arrived in mid morning there was a lot of activity but when we got to lunchtime they were visiting the nest far less. This follows the pattern of previous years when I have hardly seen any activity around the nest in the afternoon.
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