The dipper is one of my favourite birds. Something about their neat, plump shape and the way they bob up and down as if on springs always makes me smile.
Dippers live by the swift, clear, rocky streams and rivers of the uplands in northern Britain. You don’t necessarily have to go far into the wilds to see them; one of the best views I ever had of a dipper was in early spring along the River Brathay on the edge of Ambleside, right beside the pavement and the busy A593 main road. This dipper was not far from the shore of Ullswater.
|Classic dipper habitat: a rocky upland stream|
The dipper is a round, chunky-looking bird about six or seven inches from beak to tail, mainly dark brown and black with a pure white throat and breast, rather like a smart shirt front. It typically perches on a rock in or beside a stream, bobbing constantly up and down as if its legs were made out of springs.
|Dipper perched on rock in a stream|
Dippers eat aquatic insects and larvae, which they find by plunging into the water and walking along the stream bed or using their short strong wings to swim. You can see that the dipper in the first photograph has a bright yellow grub in its beak; evidently it had just had a successful foray. It flew off shortly afterwards, perhaps to take the grub to feed chicks.