Here she continues to deal with her leaf.
Friday 25th March
I observed some different, and interesting behaviour today which made the trip well worthwhile again. I tried very hard not to disturb the birds when I arrived. I managed to get a view of the nest area and couldn't see any Dippers beneath me. I thought the coast was clear, but no........ one of the birds was in the nest and emerged as soon as I took up position. She wasn't too worried about me, even if she could see me, which I doubt. It wasn't too long before I saw her starting to walk towards the nest again, and obviously towards me. On every day of observation now, I have seen this behaviour. The female lands 25 yards or so, away from the nest, and then purposefully makes her way towards it, eventually arriving on what is the favoured boulder in front of the nest. She then spends quite a while before deciding to enter the nest once she has made sure that she is safe to do so.
This happened as I expected and then the male arrived and started to act in the same way, gradually making his way towards me and the boulder. Of course, at this point I had no idea which bird was which......... was the male in the nest and could this be the female making her way towards me. My suspicions were aroused even more when this bird stopped and picked up some grass stalks. Then this bird began to sing, confirming that it was the male after all. He never did go in to the nest, instead, when the female emerged, off they both flew.
Later on, when they were both nearby, another bird flew in to the territory. This, just like yesterday, caused quite a degree of stress to the male who did his best to try and get rid of the intruder. Eventually he was successful and things calmed down.
Dipper nest
When the birds had left, and because I have seen that they are away from the area for around 20 minutes, I quickly went down to the nest to check if there had been an egg laid. Not yet! I quickly tok a photo for the diary and was back on the bank and well away after just 30 seconds or so. In the photograph you can just about make out an entrance hole at the front. The nest is made mainly of moss and roots and is very well camouflaged.
24-MAR-2011
Thursday 24th
Todays interaction was a mixture of success, frustration and a bit of worry. Again I had to disturb them when I arrived and this troubles me. I quickly concealed myself again, and only a few minutes had elapsed before they both flew back, it was now around 10 o'clock. This time the female was carrying a small piece of root or something similar, but not a leaf like yesterday.
24-MAR-2011
Dipper - Cinclus cinclus
It looks like she has this leaf in her beak but in actual fact she just investigated it. All the time that the female was at the nest site, the male was nearby on a midstream boulder as usual.
24-MAR-2011
Dipper - Cinclus cinclus
What happened next was something quite different. The male who as I have said previously is very excitable, reacted in an aggressive way to another dipper that flew through the territory. This incensed "our" breeding male who flew the "fighter-plane" patterns chasing around, swooping in circles over the water and then landing on one of his favourite boulders calling with a bubbling musical call, quite unlike the normal single syllable flight call, a mixture of call and song. He repeated this behaviour for quite some time. The strangers presence made them very wary and when they then came near to the nest a while later they were very suspicious and wouldn't approach, at this point a Wessex Helicopter flew low over the woods and this was just too much for the birds who were definitely spooked and left with some haste.
24-MAR-2011
Dipper - Cinclus cinclus
Having decided that I had been at the nest area long enough, disturbance is always a worry, I bumped in to presumably my pair of birds. It was no surprise to see them because I was sure that they were up river somewhere having left the nest area half an hour earlier. What did surprise me was seeing this third bird right there near to the breeding pair.
Wednesday 23rd March
I arrived in the morning hoping that there was going to be a little more activity at the nest at this time of day.
This proved to be the case. I was disappointed when I got to the site, to disturb the birds who were both in front of the nest. Unfortunately there is no way that you can approach without knowing if they are there or not. They both quickly took flight but I was pleased to see that they wee not unduly disturbed perching on a rock 30 yards away and feeding as if nothing unusual had happened. I took up position and covered myself. After just a short time the female appeared on the edge of the flow and worked herself towards the nest carrying these beech leaves.
Dipper - Cinclus cinclus
She didn't immediately go in to the nest, but showed quite a high level of caution, looking around and seemingly making sure the coast was clear. In fact it took her more than a minute before she eventually flew up to the nest, but straight back down still with a beak full. At first I was concerned that she was cautious because she sensed me nearby but I am confident that this was not the case because eventually she went under the over-hang and presumably, in to the nest.
Dipper - Cinclus cinclus
Here she had returned to her favoured boulder and was about to fly up and in. It is of real interest to see how clean this boulder is. The presence of Dippers can be detected by looking for "bird-lime" on the tops of exposed rocks and almost all of the rocks and boulders around and about are spotted in this way,,,, with the exception of this boulder and the one next to it. It is obviously a defensive strategy to keep the area clean and clear of any hint at their presence.
Dipper - Cinclus cinclus
Dippers are named for their habit of continually "dipping" up and down and when they are particularly excited, sometimes with fluttering open wings. This is more often observed by the male but the female here also. The light around the nest is, as you would expect, dull and not touched by the sun. This makes it very hard to freeze the action as you can see.
Dipper - Cinclus cinclus
The next three photos show her on the bank just under the nest. She doesn't always fly up from the boulder and up to the nest, sometimes preferring to make her way carefully until she is just a small hop away.