Dipper

Above and below: Dippers.

Dippers are fat little birds that are resident in Britain and are always associated with fast flowing, shallow rivers and as such are usually found in hilly or mountainous areas. They are not rare and almost any clean, fast flowing, shallow stream or river can have it's resident dippers. They are fascinating to watch as they plunge in and out of the water in search of small aquatic creatures to eat. They don't so much swim as walk under water.

The adults are mostly a dark black/brown. The back, wings and tail are black/brown, as is the lower belly and vent. The back and wings are not one solid colour, however, and in good light show an attractive mottling that is not visible in poorer light. The head too can appear black/brown but in good light can be seen to be a much warmer unmottled brown. The throat and breast are pure white, as are the eyelids which you can spot quite easily as they blink fairly frequently. In British birds the white breast is separated from the black/brown lower belly by a band of rich chestnut or orange/brown. Continental birds lack this attractive feature and are thus known as black-bellied dippers. The beak and legs are also dark brown in colour.

Juveniles, are similar but they have a much more obviously mottled back and the whole breast, belly and vent is pale with dark barring.

Dippers are not particularly nervous birds but they will fly off if startled by your sudden appearance or by quick movement. By slow careful movement however, it is possible to get surprisingly close without any apparent discomfort to the bird. There have been some concerns expressed by Natural England that photographers are having a bad effect on dippers, but I believe this relates to people actually disturbing the environment by moving rocks, entering the water and disturbing nest sites. Please don't do this.

As they are pretty much restricted to the water and their territory can stretch quite a long way, you'll need a place where there is reasonably good access to the river bank in order to get a chance to take good pictures. There are probably lots of places like this but some that I know of are Loggerheads in Clwyd, Coombes Valley in Staffordshire, Etherow Country Park in Greater Manchester, Ambleside and Windermere in Cumbria, the Goyt Valley in Derbyshire and Lathkill Dale, also in Derbyshire. In fact Loggerheads and Lathkill Dale are my two favourite places as it is possible to get close enough for a decent shot.

At all places alongside water there is usually a lot of vegetation which can make the light poor. In addition, dippers are often near the edge of the water, against dark backgrounds making correct exposure difficult and sometimes making auto focus difficult due to the lack of contrast. Loggerheads and Lathkill Dale do offer some locations, popular with dippers, that are a little more open and thus have slightly better light. .