A pair of displaying Dipper

Dipper Display

I went to Feock early PM today looking for Hawfinch following recent sightings reports,  Just about everybody I met there had seen them during the morning but I came away without a sighting.  Plan B was to call in at Kennell Vale on my way home to try my luck with the Dipper,  Light levels were low but I could see a Dipper present midstream long before I reached the river, I carefully approached the area that I had worked from a few days earlier and managed to set up without causing any concern from the bird which looked very relaxed and it spent ten to fifteen minutes preening before moving off a favoured midstream log and started hunting along a shallow bank area where its dramatic colours blended in so well with the backdrop,

It was at this point that the Dipper started to display and I then noticed that a second bird had arrived and was foraging for larva in deeper water,  This second bird initially carried on foraging until it came up with a meal and then turned its attention to the first bird which it now joined back on the midstream log where first one and then both birds were displaying and moving closer to each other to produce the first image above in this very interesting sequence of events.

Unfortunately both birds were disturbed by passers-bye on the other side of the river and they flew off downstream to a quieter area outside of the reserve,   Roll on next week when all the seasonal holiday breaks are over and some peace might return to the river and these amazing birds,