Kennell Vale Dipper and Grey Wagtail

The new lime green woodland canopy at Kennell Vale looked beautiful this morning but the cover that it created stopped the daylight from reaching the river banks

Lots of shots of dark Dippers in dark locations ended up being deleted but every now and again the birds seemed to find a patch of penetrating daylight to brighten up their portraits

The brighter coloured Grey Wagtails fared better and they were showing more often and in more varied locations than the Dipper.

The Dipper and the Grey wagtail were all busy feeding young in the nest so we will hopefully be snapping away on fledglings being fed along the river banks before to long !

Kennall Vale Dipper Behaviour

The male Dipper was displaying well to the female on their waterfall location in the river at Kennall Vale today.

But the female didn't seem to be over impressed by his display so after scratching his head the male flew off to put another plan into motion.

H e went to some partially submerged moss covered boulder and came back with a face full of moss which he displayed to the female for nesting material.

She seemed to be very pleased with his efforts and they both flew up into her nest site.

The Male Dipper decided that this was a good move and was last seen leaving their waterfall and chasing off down the river looking for more Moss !!

Wagtail Wash & Brush -up

While I was waiting for a show from the Kennell Vale Dipper yesterday this lively Grey wagtail turned up and initially spent some time predating on caterpillars around the sunlit river banks,

Snacks complete it headed into the river shallows for a serious session of bathing then hopped up on to a nearby rock and preened just about every feather that it had before heading off up stream

Kennell Vale Dipper

Spent another lovely day photographing the Dipper and Grey Wagtails at Ponsenooth and the Kennell Vale woods were bathed in dappled light sunshine throughout the day.

The Dipper were showing well both in the river and on the sunlit banks creating some good photo opportunities,

I have a meeting this evening some a blog on the Grey Wagtail will follow tomorrow

As a bye the way,  If you go to Kennell Vale to photograph the Dippers watch out for the shifty looking Pasty Pilfering Poacher of Ponsenooth   { see photo fit picture below } For he and his hound are likely to make off with your pasty lunch while you are working and they swiftly devours it before you realise.  He then runs off through the woods shouting ' Get on ' to his hound encouraging it to find another victim.

I'm told that they are both hungry but harmless,   They just love Pasties !!

On a Wing and a Prayer

Our Dipper at Kennell vale were showing well yesterday and I spent some time trying for a few flight shots but like many other diving birds with short wings the Dippers flight is fast and low to the water and the light levels are mainly to low for a fast enough shutter speed required on telephoto lenses

Its wings are only just big enough  ' On a Wing and a Prayer ' to support its weight in the air using fast powerful wing beats but they come into their own when used to  'fly'  upstream under the water.

To capture some wing detail images I settled down to following a few preening sessions and finally got lucky with some nice wing stretching activity.

All of these activities are a bit tiring so our Dipper takes a bit of a snooze while lowering its white feathered eyelids in a sunny spot while I backed off leaving it in peace !!

Dipper Portraits

Spent another productive day photographing the Dipper at Kennell Vale

Good spells of sunshine penetrated through the woods but it created ever moving tree shadows so  we had to keep changing locations while waiting for the Dippers to turn up in chosen areas exposed to sunlight to gain good exposures,