13-Mar-2011
13 march the male leaving the nest.
My efforts to capture photos of the birds in flight continued on the 13 March. This shot shows the male shooting out of the nest.
12-MAR-2011
12th March and nest building continues.
I could't visit the Dipper site yesterday so consequently I was anxious to check that everything was OK this morning. Both birds were present in front of the nest which is now a classic feat of avian engineering, a ball of moss that would be impossible to see if you didn't know it was there. Some leaves were being carried now, the finishing touches to the nest. Moss is still being brought but when one of the pair is in the nest it's impossible to see the occupant. The birds are still using a favourite boulder to land on both before they enter and when they leave. At one point the female was preening, perched on this boulder, we both heard the male flying down the river, calling as he flew. The female reacted by adopting a low posture as though she was going to be mated, he landed and performed a wing fluttering display and then flew up to the nest.
10-MAR-2011
The nest on 10th March
I didn't visit until after 4 today and I wasn't expecting to see the birds at the nest. So much for my theory that they don't get involved in nest building in the latter part of the day. I could see both birds just sitting quietly on the rocks in front of the nest, the first time that I have observed them just sitting. It was interesting to see such a dramatic change of mood around the nest. It was quiet and calm. I managed to squeeze in to the hide by sliding feet first on my back and without showing a profile above the bank. I was pleased to see that they were not in the slightest bit disturbed by my arrival, they hadn't seen me and were completely unaware of my presence. This meant that I could start recording their behaviour immediately. There wasn't a great deal to record but that in itself became the thing of note. Interestingly both birds swopped over in the usual way but the dramatic difference today was that they didn't always carry nesting material with them when they came and went. Once inside the nest I could hardly see the birds because the external structure is now a complete ball with just a smallish entrance hole. There was a definite calming of intensity with birds carrying material to the nest but not in the frantic way of previous days. The nest seems to be nearing completion now and it's going to be interesting to see for how long they continue adding the final touches. As I watched one of the pair in the nest I couldn't help admire the perfection of it. When I built the hide opposite I had disguised it with leaves and moss, hoping that it would be undiscovered. The Dippers had done exactly the same thing, building a camouflaged nest disguised with moss and leaves, albeit instinctively but in a way, the end result was the same. Because of that, I felt some kind of real connection with the birds today. It's going to be difficult to assess the commencement of egg laying. I will not want to cause any disturbance whatsoever so I will not be investigating the nest. I am developing a real fondness for this pair of birds that have given me so much pleasure already and I feel a real sense of responsibility for their welfare.
09-Mar-2011
Dipper with a Salmon Par
It turned out to be a very special session today. I didn't get there too early because the light is so hard to deal with first thing and I was quite confident that the Dippers would be carrying on with their building. The nest isn't finished yet, there is lots to do. I managed to get in to the hide with no disturbance whatsoever and as I put everything together, the camera on the tripod and then attached the camera to the lens, I could see both birds in front of me, coming and going just as before. The morning progressed nicely with the nest really taking shape now and turning in to a ball of moss protruding from the hollow and almost finished. There is a a small entrance hole now and it is impossible to see inside. It's been quite incredible too see it develop over the last week from a little hollow in the bank that didn't seem as though it was possible to support a nest, to this structure now that is going to be just perfection. It blends in to the surrounding moss bank perfectly and it would be impossible to see if you didn't know it was there. When you consider that instinct is involved in the building of this nest, then you have to marvel at the way that it has taken shape. Perhaps this may be the first nest that this pair has built, how incredible is that? It is certainly a different female than last year who I would recognise by damage to the eye of that bird.
The birds came and went as usual with one leaving as soon as the other arrived. At one point I am quite sure that a 'rogue' male came in to the immediate vicinity of the nest and joined the resident female while the male was away, a few minutes later there was a few exciting minutes when "our" male flew up river in pursuit off the intruding bird, he was calling loudly as he drove the trespasser out of the patch. The female finished off what she was up to inside the nest and then joined in the chase as though she needed to find out what was going on, almost an after thought. The real excitement occurred when the male went off to feed and I watched him emerge with a real catch. He swam to a mid-stream boulder with a fish which turned out to be a Salmon Par, I could hardly believe my eyes. It was the size of a small minnow and even a Kingfisher would have considered this to be a decent trophy and for a bird usually content with small insects, a real prize. He had it firmly held by the dorsal fin and then, once out of the water proceeded to beat it to death in just the way that a Kingfisher would. Eventually and after several minutes he managed to get it down. He stood quietly for a few minutes while it settled in to his stomach and eventually he carried on as normal. The fish was comparatively large for such a small bird and proof that live fish are definitely on the menu, quite a revelation. The birds came and went, working on the nest until way after 13.00. There is lots to do before eggs are laid.
08-Mar-2011
8th March
Nest building continued today, Thursday 8th March, one week on from first discovering this nest site. I arrived at around 10 this morning and both birds took an equal part, building until just after 1.00. There was nothing different about today, mostly moss and the occasional piece of grass were brought. Moss is gathered from boulders high and dry or sphagnum moss from the dry bank. The male seems to have a preference for sphagnum, the female gathering mostly aquatic moss. At one point the male responded to an alarm call from the adjacent woods, he left the nest and perched on the rocks beneath and then sounded a musical call of warning to his mate and they both departed. I suspected that there was a Sparrowhawk nearby, I looked around but couldn't see it for myself. I undertook a count of visits to the nest for an hour between 1120-1220 both birds between them visited, with nesting material 17 times. A pattern of leaving the nest seems to be developing, as soon as one of the pair arrives, the other bird immediately flops in to the water beneath the nest and then swims down stream to a nearby rock before flying off to gather more material. On some occasions the male would instead, fly upstream returning quite a while later.
07-MAR-2011
7th March nest building continues.
Watching the Dippers today made me realise how fundamental their requirements are. A good habitat of fast flowing, clean clear water that can sustain enough prey for them to find easily and with little effort is fundamental to successful breeding. A female Dipper needs to have built up enough energy reserves to produce a clutch of 4 or 5 eggs with a combined weight of approximately 23 grams, a third of her body weight. For the female who, while the eggs are developing expends a considerable amount of energy on nest building rather than finding food, it is vitally important that she can find prey quickly and in quantity. Nest sites are important. Safety and seclusion are the prime requirements. Being a species that spends it's entire life in or close to the water they utilise the safety of water as a strategy when nesting. Nests are invariably over water or alongside it. I had first hand experience today of how important seclusion is and I am guessing that this is as important as the other two factors already discussed. The pair that I am studying have a large territory, a stretch of river at least 600 metres long and the reason that they have chosen to nest in this particular spot is because it is about as far from human interference as it could be. In my 75 or more hours of watching this spot I have not even once seen another person. This means that they can get on with feeding and building unhindered with the absolute minimum of interference. I arrived at the site way past 11 because of a rainy start to the morning. It was virtually impossible to tuck myself under cover without being seen. After that, as I sat and waited, it was more than 25 minutes before they returned to carry on with nest building. It is not not satisfactory nor acceptable for me to disturb them in this way and I need to find a way to get in to the hide without being seen. Imagine how impossible it would be to successfully breed close to a well used path for example.
Once building had resumed it pretty much went on as before. For example they had finished and departed at roughly the same time as yesterday, around 12.45. The male was the first to start after a little song from the rock opposite. During the session, a Mallard swam up the current and was in front of the nest just inches away. They took real exception to this and perched opposite, both with a beak full, waiting for the duck to move away. The nest is now suddenly taking shape and starting to extend outwards. I can see that it will eventually form a ball that will be closed off gradually, leaving an entrance hole in the front, making it, no doubt even more camouflaged.
I went back to the site after 4 this afternoon and to my utter surprise both birds turned up. They were back at the nest and continuing with building. Not with the same intensity as the morning sessions and it appeared to be the male who was taking the lead. There had been noticeable progress on the nest since this morning so my guess is that they have been working on it through the afternoon. This is a dramatic change in behaviour. It's the first time that I have observed any nest building in the afternoon or early evening.
06-MAR-2012
6 March the female starts to take over the building
My observations continued at the Dipper nest today. Building continued unabated and with zeal by both birds. I watched from just after 9 until 12.40 and for that entire period they mostly took it in turns with the female perhaps doing the lions share. Yesterday, moss was almost entirely used but today a variety of materials included leaves and grasses and even a dead fern frond. Without exception every beak full was dunked and thoroughly soaked before being taken up to the nest, obviously an in-bred instinctive behaviour. The male was more likely to take a feeding break, which he did on several occasions but the female only once. Food seemed incredibly easy to come by and I watched the male successfully find prey on every underwater foray which took just a few minutes. The sibilant noise that accompanied every arrival at the nest, particularly by the male, was hardly made today particularly as the session went on. The method of building involved much poking and pecking and the new material was woven and pushed in to the existing fabric of the nest. Only one bird at a time would work on the nest with each bird usually remaining at work until it was relieved by it's mate. When exiting the nest both birds flopped in to the water in the same manner and swam with the current to a favourite rock in the stream. They would then decide in which direction to fly to gather more material. On returning to the nest they would arrive in flight to the same rock after first wetting the beak full of material before flying up to the nest to relieve their mate. On some occasions the delivering bird would immediately leave with a full beak knowing that there was not room for both birds to work at the same time. This seemed to be cognitive behaviour. All nest building came to a sudden end at around 12.40, pretty much exactly the same time as yesterday and like yesterday, the male perched on a boulder and sang to proclaim his territory. By 1.00 both birds had departed the nest area.
05-MAR-2012
5 March, nest building continues.
When I arrived at 9.30 this morning, I tried not to disturb the bird that I could see frantically working inside the, as yet, hollow nest opposite. I was successful and slipped in unnoticed and she carried on untroubled. The male came along just a few minutes later and started to sing before he joined her in the nest. I made a guess that he had just arrived at the nest site for the first time as he didn't sing like that for the next three hours, but more about that at the end of this piece. At the moment the nest is starting to look more rounded and it seems to be fully lined now, however there are still days and days of building to be done. I have read that nest building can take as long as 3 weeks, if so this would put us on around the same time frame as last year when the first egg was laid on the 26th March. There was lots of noisy chattering when he joined her with that churring, bubbling sound. This noise is quite audible above the noise of tumbling water and seems to be associated with nest building. I said previously that this was a greeting but I am certain now that it is a sound used whenever they enter the nest, perhaps later when chicks are in the nest it is a greeting to them? It was interesting to note that the male is more vocal and made the noise even when he entered the nest alone and while the female was absent. It certainly drew my attention to the nest which is odd because in every other respect they are very cautious. Nest building went on for just about three hours, both birds fetching and carrying material and they would take it in turns to be up in the nest. Sometimes one bird would arrive at the nest and the other would immediately depart but mostly the female would wait on rocks beneath the nest for her mate to finish before she flew up. Every beak full of moss was thoroughly dunked in the river and completely soaked before it was used. This may make it easier to manipulate in to the existing structure. I watched this wetting of nesting material continually last year so it is an obvious ritual that is always carried out. Building material was mainly moss, either gathered from the dry bank or wet rocks. On two occasions, grasses and leaves were brought back. Both birds took part in building today but the male, at one point was seen to start feeding for 20 minutes or so before carrying on with building duties. I didn't see the female take this kind of feeding break. At the end of the session there was a dramatic change in the demeanour of both birds which signalled an end to this particular part of their daily routine. The male had already left and gone down stream to patrol his territory. After a few minutes he came back and called musically. The female, with much excitement left the nest and started to dip and bob, which she hadn't done in the previous three hours. She responded to the males presence with wing fluttering and dipping and I thought that copulation might take place. They both hurriedly departed together and in the same direction upstream presumably to feed in the area where they seem to spend the later part of the day, 300 hundred meters or more from the nest. It was more than obvious that they had stopped for the day as their behaviour was so dramatically different from the previous three hours.
04-MAR-2012
4 March and nest building continues.
It was wet and very dreary this morning so I delayed my visit until just after 10, I didn't think this would be too much of a problem though because yesterday I had not seen the birds at the nest until after 1030. When I got to the river I attempted to get in to the hide without any disturbance . This almost worked but I immediately saw a Dipper slide out of the nest and quietly slip away downstream. It had probably seen me but I can't be sure. It was 20 minutes before either bird returned which makes me think that was the case. Both birds arrived together, first they flew to the rocks in the water below the nest and then one, probably the female flew up to the nest. They were noisy enough to herald their arrival and I heard them coming even before they had landed. After a very short while, twenty seconds or so, the male joined her in the nest and I heard the new greeting sound that I had heard yesterday for the first time. Strange that you can see a bird hundreds of times and then hear something totally new. I will make an attempt to record this sound which is very interesting. At first both birds went to and fro from the nest in turn but after a while it seemed that the male missed his turn. He visited less and less until he stopped building and started to feed. The male had been collecting sphagnum moss from the high dry bank sides, he then flew to the rocks near to me and made more than a casual effort to wet the moss before flying back to the nest. At one point, instead of flying over to the nest side of the river, he entered the water with a full beak of wet moss and swam back instead. The nest is already taking shape and looks more circular than yesterday. With the male upstream, feeding and the female away from the nest gathering moss, I left as quickly as I could without any disturbance.
I returned at 5 for the last hour of light. I am trying to discover if the birds have any association close to the nest at this time of the day. At around the same time, the male arrived opposite the nest and sang a short song before he moved to a near perch to repeat his song, then after a while returned in the opposite direction and repeated the process. The presence of the male on two consecutive evenings at the same time and acting in the same way, is hardly scientific but perhaps indicates that the male was patrolling his territory before he went to roost. I am starting to gain an understanding of patterns of behaviour during the day. It seems that first thing in the morning they feed for the first few hours and then afterwards spend a couple of hours nest building. Then for the rest of the day they are off feeding again until dusk.
3rd March and I find the new nest.
I was excited as I made my way to the river quite early this morning. Yesterday I had put up a screen hide between an old oak tree and a small holy bush. From this hide I had a clear view of the opposite bank and the "potential" new Dipper nest. I just knew that today was going to be great so when I arrived and there was no Dipper where I expected one to be I have to confess to being perplexed. Never take anything for granted with birds, it rarely works out the way you expect and frustration is the norm. The minutes ticked by…… total silence, eventually it was gone 10 and with every minute I felt more despair and disappointment. It even went through my head to call an end to it but having spent more than 40 hours just this week trying to solve the "where are they nesting" riddle, that would have been stupid. Then, the male Dipper flew down to me, perched on a nearby rock, sang a little song and left back up to where he had come from. What was that all about I thought? He had seemingly ignored the nest and now he had gone again. This only added to my frustration and now despair had certainly set in.
Then suddenly and with excruciating tension, there he was again, right in front of me with a beak full of moss and then…….. up he flew to "the nest." I had found it! It had been right there in front of me all along and I couldn't see it for looking, what absolutely brilliant camouflage. Then within seconds the female joined him in the hollow cavity, because that's all it was at the moment. They made an odd chuckling and bubbling sound as they greeted each other. They both came and went from the nest repeatedly for the next hour and a half, the male mostly gathering moss from the bank side and the female flying off up stream to get hers. They took it in turns to weave the moss in to the structure being formed. Sometimes they would be there in the hollow together but never for long, the male tumbling in to the water head first as he departed the female flying off up stream. Each time they swopped there was this excited new greeting sound that I hadn't heard before. There was a degree of almost aggression from the male who was obviously the boss and he bullied her into leaving whenever he arrived. On one occasion she made two attempts to add her moss but he refused to leave until his had been woven in to his satisfaction. All in all it had turned in to a pretty special morning. The male seemed to want to dunk his moss in to the water and get it thoroughly wet before he delivered it, I don't know if the female was doing this, she collected hers from further afield. I observed this behaviour last year when they were finishing off the nest. Some other interesting behaviour occurred when they reacted to a threat, real or imaginary I don't know. They both departed the nest with real urgency and fled the scene in total opposite directions, flying very low, silently and extremely quickly. I have often read that male Dipper do not help in nest building, this is obviously poor information and not accurate, I watched both pairs taking an equal part. It's obvious that over the next few weeks I am going to be able to add lots more information and as I hoped, it's all going to be very exciting.
The downside of this, if there is one, is the very difficult light that I am having to deal with so after leaving them to it at lunchtime, I went back late evening to see if it would be better then. I didn't expect to see nest building, as mentioned before, I have never seen building activity in the afternoon and evening, an interesting fact in itself. I was perhaps hoping to see if the birds chose to roost near the nest. This seemed to be the case because just before dusk the male turned up and sang to proclaim his territory. Going back to the first appearance of the male in the morning. It seems that he had flown to the nest area to check if the coast was clear so to speak, returning later with the female when they were certain that it was safe to do so.
02-MAR-2012
Where's the nest.
Continuing on from yesterday, I returned to take up my position by the new nest site. It made sense to approach from another direction and I was interested to immediately see a Dipper on the stepping stones that I was about to cross. It flew in the opposite direction and I suspect that this was a bird from a different territory and not my breeding pair. I arrived up river at the spot where all the activity was yesterday and immediately saw that the female was perched just beneath the makeshift hide that I had put up before I left. It soon became obvious that the area that they were interested in was just below me because several times a bird came and went with nesting material. I was not learning anything though and that was the idea of today's session. I was trying to find out exactly where the nest was. When I thought it was safe to do so, I left the scene taking my gear with me. I had been studying the opposite bank while I sat there and came to the conclusion that I would have a better view of what was happening from the other side. Off I went and half an hour later, I was covered up in camo gear and watching, now from the opposite bank. I have noticed, both this year and last, that all nest building activity seems to take place in the earlier part of the day and in all my watching I have yet to see any building activity after 1pm and it was now way past midday. I was pleased therefore when at 12.38, the male noisily arrived singing and chirpy with a beak full of moss. I watched him intently and with the excitement that comes with real interest. I thought my question was going to be answered as he flew to the rock just beneath where I had been sat earlier. I expected him to give up his secret but then, frustratingly and inexplicably, he flew back up stream without depositing his building material. I won't tell you what my reaction was but just lets say, I cursed! Then, probably because of their habit of feeding way up stream in the afternoon, as I have already explained, that was the last sight I had of Dippers today even thoughI remained for another 3 hours.
01-MAR-2012
1st March and a new nest site.
I managed to get the answer to some questions today. I have spent the last 5 days sat in the hide trying to work out exactly what the Dippers are up to. So after another couple of hours, and with no sign of Dippers it was starting to look obvious that the nest was not going to be used this year. I decided that some proactive action needed to be taken. I had my suspicions as to where they may be nesting now so I made my way to the spot, just 100 yards or so down stream. I immediately saw a Dipper on the rocks where I had seen it numerous times before. Taking cover behind a tree I watched as it collected nesting material and flew in to the bank on my side of the river and hidden beneath me. It wasn't long before it re-appeared on the rocks again and repeated the process, this time joined by it's mate who also filled it's beak with moss and followed the other bird. They were obviously building. I quickly retreated without disturbing them and made my way back to the car to get some camo material. 30 minutes later and back at the new site I quickly sat down and covered myself with the cam material and leaves. This worked well and I watched both birds coming and going with nesting material for about half an hour. I had some real issues with my camera, it was very misty when I arrived and the damp air had misted the front of the lens making any photos taken useless until I had sorted it out. Eventually I managed to get it clear and took a few photos. The light here is superb with the wood thinning out and allowing more light on to the scene. I am really confident that I am going to get some really great photos here and also carry on with my study. Incidentally I deliberately kept away from the nest not wanting to take any risks whatsoever.