Big Dipper! 1st March 2020

On my most favourite of all Pogues songs; the 'Boys from the County Hell', Shane MacGowan sang, "On the first day of March it was raining, it was raining worse than anything that I have ever seen....". Well, today was the 1st of March and it was bright and sunny! If he'd have chosen any other day this year then he'd probably have been right but today he was wrong. Didn't stop me singing the song in my head though, it's a bit of a 1st of March tradition for me, as we drove off to the Northampton area to twitch a Black-bellied Dipper that had been found the day before. In fact initially a perfectly normal, and usually encountered, Chestnut-bellied Dipper (or more accurately a White-throated Dipper) had been discovered in the spill off waterway at Sywell Country Park but observations and photos taken had revealed the bird to be the continental cousin and nominate species of our own resident subspecies. Dippers are common birds of upland areas in Britain but are reasonably rare birds in lowland counties. Therefore a visit would have been worth undertaking for our common Dipper (Cinclus cinclus gularis) but the European mainland Dipper (Cinclus cinclus cinclus) is a mega rare bird locally so it just had to be seen. In fact I'd never seen one in the UK, their occurrence is quite rare with just a couple of records each year and those sightings are mainly from Norfolk and other eastern counties.

Dipper (Cinclus cinclus gularis), Nethybridge, 27/02/2019

Our SatNav conspired to send us up a blind alley and when we arrived at the carpark we dived in and claimed virtually the last free place. Not quite free since it then cost nearly £4 to remain there. The rise in car parking charges in this country is nothing short of scandalous! Our friend and top North Oxon birder Justin was already there and making his way down the hill to the road bridge where the Black-bellied Dipper was supposed to be. We rushed to join him and maybe a dozen others at the bridge but for the moment there was no sign of the bird. I spoke to a few of the assembled to get the gen and stared hopefully at the parts of the stream that were visible under the heavily vegetated banks. A ripple went through the small crowd, somebody had seen the Dipper further upstream inside the Country Park so we all hurried, well everybody else did, Mrs Caley and I ambled as usual, to the cafe garden where the sighting had been. Then just as we got there another call announced that the bird was flying up the concrete banked spillway so we all followed. We stopped for a quick chat with one of Northamptonshire's finest and he related that earlier the Dipper had been feeding right at the top of the spillway "steps" and in his opinion the best thing to do would be to stand on a small bridge that crossed the waterway just below the top cascade and watch from there. I rejoined Justin on the bank but he hadn't seen the Dipper despite getting there quickly. We stood gazing at the rushing water course for maybe five minutes with no sign of anything when suddenly the Dipper was flying downstream again. Where it had appeared from I had no idea since it most definitely hadn't been in the stream as we looked for it. I later learned that there is a small inlet pipe halfway up the cascade and that the Dipper often used it for sanctuary. Anyway the bird was now on our year list, although strictly speaking doesn't count as a life tick because it is merely a subspecies of our own UK Dipper.

Justin had walked back downstream while we had remained on the bridge and I now saw him crouch suddenly and line up his scope onto something, he must have the bird. Leaving Mrs Caley behind, sorry babe, I walked as fast as I could and once again joined Justin once again, thanking him for re-finding the Dipper. Now I had a few record shots.

Black-bellied Dipper (Cinclus cinclus cinclus)

I manoeuvred into a better and closer position and gained some slightly better images for my non-existent portfolio and more importantly for this blog. I was struck by the size of the Black-bellied Dipper which appeared to be larger and sturdier than the Dippers I've seen before but I guess that may have been just conjecture on my part with no direct comparison possible. The belly of the bird was indeed very dark and contrasted greatly with the bright white throat. The Dipper was then disturbed by a Blackbird flying low overhead and flew off downstream once more.

Mrs Caley and I chatted away to other birders and toggers back at the bridge on what had turned into a fine and sunny, if a bit chilly, morning. More birders were assembled back down by the cafe and a surge of activity there indicated that somebody had seen the Dipper. This time however, we both remained where we were and it wasn't long before the Dipper was flying directly up the spillway towards us. I tried and failed to successfully photograph bird in flight as it whirred past us. Dippers fly very quickly so getting any flight shots is always difficult. The Dipper flew straight past the top step of the cascade and under the main bridge at the edge of the reservoir. 

For another ten minutes there was no further sign so I decided to have a walk upstream to see if it was secreted somewhere. Just as well as I did since halfway there the Dipper flew back towards me and landed on the opposite bank just thirty feet or so away. I couldn't believe my luck! I now had sole access to a private Photoshoot session. The bird was nervous though so I did my best to remain motionless as I took some shots.

The Dipper flitted up but only onto a fence behind the bank and really posed well. What a flirt! Unfortunately in my excitement I had completely forgotten that the white throat of the bird would blow out all normal exposure settings on my camera and hadn't compensated by knocking the camera down a stop. I'm not great with camera settings or the jargon surrounding them but I knew as soon as I'd looked at the back of the camera that I'd messed it up. The Dipper was fully exposed to the direct and bright sunlight on the fence and the brilliant photos that I thought I had gained were in fact overexposed and almost useless. Oh well, perhaps I'll learn for next time, and maybe that's why I deem myself a birder rather than a togger. The brighter images also showed that the Dipper did have some chestnut colours in it underparts particularly at the border with the white chest but the belly was still most definitely darker than our native Dippers.

A dog walker striding past and yelling loudly at her charge put paid to my one on one with the Dipper and it sped away downstream again leaving me with some fond memories of that intimate few minutes. Mrs Caley had enjoyed really good views from the foot bridge too so we were both happy. We needed use of the onsite facilities and on our way walked straight into the Dipper once again, this time it was stood on the concrete wall opposite the cafe and had many more admirers than before further up the stream. Birders and toggers alike, numbers had swollen to around fifty, were jostling for the best view through the safety fence and some stood atop picnic tables in the hope of a better viewpoint.

We decided to walk back up to the bridge again since we still hadn't seen the Dipper in the water and that it where they are supposed to be! I felt the best bet to watch it feeding would be at the top of the cascade and the bridge afforded the best views at reasonable range. On our way the Dipper once more flew past us towards the reservoir. As before there was no immediate sign of it when we reached the bridge, my own best guess was that it was flying onto the reservoir edge and to somewhere out of sight. But our luck held and soon the Dipper returned and landed on the bank above the stream again. After a minute or so of surveying the water below the bird at last flittered down onto the top steps of the cascade and began hunting out food.

Now there was an added problem for the Photographer in that the concrete wall, owing to the angle of the sun, cast a deep shadow onto the stream and the Dipper appeared to prefer to feed in the shaded area, it must have been easier for it to see prey in the darker water. This obviously presented problems in getting a fast enough shutter speed. The Dipper was essentially a bit too far for the reach of my lens anyway so having secured a few record shots I contented myself in just watching the way it submerged in the shallow water. The Dipper always ducked under with its head facing into the torrent and would stay submerged in that way for quite some time. When it caught some food then it usually flew back up to the concrete wall to eat.

On the fourth sortie into the water the Dipper did edge out further into the stream and reached the sunlit area which made for some more enlightening images although of course it was still really too far away. A few people had begun to creep closer to the bird but I was reticent to do the same considering that I'd been chatting to fellow birders on the bridge and they were all content to remain put. I wouldn't want to be the one to put the bird to flight in front of the assembled audience although I feared that it would fly very soon after being disturbed by one of the over eager toggers.

In the event the Dipper actually continued feeding undisturbed since everybody remained at a tolerable distance away. Mrs Caley and I walked up to the top bridge, giving the Dipper a wide berth on the way, and viewed the slipway from upstream. Here we were closer to the bird but were looking back into the light so there was no improvement in my images. On one of the Dippers trips back to the wall I did at least capture a few frames of the birds nictating eyelids for which Dippers are well known for, the white eye covering allowing the bird to protect its eyes whilst underwater.

We'd had our fill so walked along the reservoir bank and back to the carpark which was now positively heaving with folk out for their own Sunday morning constitutionals. We headed off to Pitsford Water to see if there were any interesting birds on the feeders there but didn't linger when we realised that it would cost us another extortionate parking fee. Instead we stopped off at the other end of the reservoir where you can still park for free and walked down a lane to view the feeders there and where you are guaranteed to see Tree Sparrows. The rarer country cousin of the much more abundant House Sparrow are very hard to find in Oxon now and this site at Pitsford represents the easiest place locally to see them and to add them to our year list.

Tree Sparrow

Just a few miles away there is the site at Hanging Houghton where we saw a Great Grey Shrike last year, not present this time around, and also where a few Brambling were taking advantage of a winter feeding programme. This time we found a small flock of Chaffinches taking the scattered seed but didn't find any of their orange and black cousins from the North. Rarer finches are hard to come by down south this winter.

And it's lend me ten pounds, I'll buy you a drink and mother wake me early in the morning!