I observed some different, and interesting behaviour today which made the trip well worthwhile again. I tried very hard not to disturb the birds when I arrived. I managed to get a view of the nest area and couldn't see any Dippers beneath me. I thought the coast was clear, but no........ one of the birds was in the nest and emerged as soon as I took up position. She wasn't too worried about me, even if she could see me, which I doubt. It wasn't too long before I saw her starting to walk towards the nest again, and obviously towards me. On every day of observation now, I have seen this behaviour. The female lands 25 yards or so, away from the nest, and then purposefully makes her way towards it, eventually arriving on what is the favoured boulder in front of the nest. She then spends quite a while before deciding to enter the nest once she has made sure that she is safe to do so.
This happened as I expected and then the male arrived and started to act in the same way, gradually making his way towards me and the boulder. Of course, at this point I had no idea which bird was which......... was the male in the nest and could this be the female making her way towards me. My suspicions were aroused even more when this bird stopped and picked up some grass stalks. Then this bird began to sing, confirming that it was the male after all. He never did go in to the nest, instead, when the female emerged, off they both flew.
Later on, when they were both nearby, another bird flew in to the territory. This, just like yesterday, caused quite a degree of stress to the male who did his best to try and get rid of the intruder. Eventually he was successful and things calmed down.