I was set up today by 9.40, a little later than I would have preferred. It was quiet with no sign of Dippers! The weather was bright with clear sky and scattered clouds, it was unusually warm for the time of year. The water level has dropped slightly and returned to normal, important because some of yesterday's submerged boulders were now exposed again. These boulders make ideal perches for Dippers and Wagtails. I had seen a pair of Grey Wagtails on the walk down and now other birds were singing loudly around the hide. It is almost spring after all. 20 minutes or so later and a pair of Goosanders flew upstream and past the hide giving me extremely close views of this interesting fish-eating duck. They are known as sawbills because of the serrated edges to the bill which enables them to hold on to their slippery fish prey. They are reviled by game anglers because of their preferences for the same kinds of habitat and water that is also preferred by Salmon and Trout so you can guess the conflict issues that arise. When Goosanders flew past me last week in the same manner they eventually made their way back to me in front of the hide but unfortunately I wasn't able to picture them. I am hoping this isn't going to be the case today. At 10.24, still no Dipper which is quite normal. The time had moved on to 11.27 and at last I had a Dipper in my sights. Not actually with me yet but about 200 metres down stream. This usually means that it would make it's way up to this favourite area of river........ and hopefully the nest site! When it did, I was ready, the light had improved a little. I could actually see the bird feeding now. It had just flown from it's bank side perch and flopped in to the water to feed in the usual fashion. I could only see one but just lately they are never too far from each other. It was much closer now sitting on a favoured midstream boulder and dealing with something it had just found. At 11.35 I have lost sight of it........ but there it was again now even closer........ just as expected.
I stopped writing at that point because It was starting to get interesting. Suddenly the one was joined by his/her mate and then the male flew on to the branch below. He spent a few minutes nonchalantly preening and trying to make out that he wasn't interested. Then after several minutes the female suddenly came in to view very close behind with a beak full of nesting material. They then both flew to the boulder even nearer to me and then she was up in to the nest to deposit the nesting material. He immediately left the nest site and she disappeared yet again without me seeing her leave. A few minutes later a Dipper flew from upstream and back down river, probably to join up with it's mate. What a thrill, nest building, which is said to take up to three weeks to complete, is going well. I have no idea if this is earlier than last year. In 2011 the first eggs was laid on March 26, a month off yet. As usual when I left in the early PM, they were both way up river, away from the nest. In the meantime I saw the female carrying nesting material but she didn't bring it to this nest, is this just a defensive ploy to confuse watching predators?