Yesterday morning I was on my way to a garden centre near Cockermouth when I decided to divert to Harris Park and take a walk by the River Cocker. The Dipper image above is from two years ago (in fact I see that it is only one day off two years to the day) and I was reminded of this as I walked down through the park to the river. Would I see one today? Being fast-flowing the River Cocker provides areas of ideal habitat for Dippers, as also does my local river, the Derwent at Workington.
Looking upstream from the bridge at the southern end of the park I saw a Grey Wagtail, then a Carrion Crow. There was a Chaffinch singing in the tree behind me; I’d been trying to get a photo of him but failed due to the leaves. But no Dipper to be seen anywhere. Then suddenly I spotted something move by the water in the far distance.
I was not sure whether I would get a useable shot as it was so far away, at more or less the limit of my 400 mm zoom lens . However, it turned out clearer than expected and I didn’t need to enlarge the image. A Dipper was perched on a rock, surveying the river, looking for food. Then I noticed something else.
A Dipper Pair
There were two Dippers quite close together. I watched them for a while. They would appear to go their separate ways then come back together and fly off to the far bank of the river; to where I couldn’t see. A minute or two later they’d return and either dip their heads in the river or patrol the pebbles at the water’s margin.
By the way, I referred to the Dipper as “perching” on the rock. It is a “perching bird”, a Passerine, but an unusual one in that it is also capable of diving and swimming for considerable distances under water and is very much an aquatic bird.
Food for the Little Dippers?
From the way the two birds were behaving I was sure that these two adult Dippers were hunting for food for chicks in a nest. They love small fish and caddis fly larvae as well as other insects, beetles, shrimps and molluscs. Although I could not get to a position to see where the nest might be I did manage to walk to a point on the hillside from where I could get a closer look at them catching insects and grubs. The bird above had succeeded in getting at least two insects.
The other one was not going to be outdone and quickly found what looks to be a nice juicy grub. At this point in time they weren’t doing much diving, and I only saw one of them go under water once. They seemed to be getting their food from around the edge of the shallow water. If they keep it up at this pace they’re going to have a well-fed brood but it’s hard, relentless work bringing up a family of chicks to the point where, after three to four weeks, they fledge and then after another couple of weeks can learn to hunt for themselves and become independent.
It is to be hoped that they do successfully raise at least one brood this year as there has been something of a decline in numbers and the bird is Amber rated.
For more on Dippers see the relevant BTO pages.
