Dippers and blippers

I've played around here to show this enchanting little bird in its winter habitat, the fast-flowing river Gwaun where it emerges from the valley to enter the harbour. Standing on the bridge looking upstream I can just see the rock (enlarged) on which a dipper perches, bobs and dives into the stream. Using its wings, literally flying underwater, it picks larvae and shrimps off the river bed and pops back up and out on to the rock before plunging in again. On my walk into town I was able to take several shots as it flitted and perched along the banks. Despite their almost exclusively aquatic lifestyle dippers don't have webbed feet, however they do have a number of other adaptations such as extra oily feathers, flaps over their nostrils, well-developed wing muscles, eyes that can function underwater and blood that stores large amounts of oxygen: 

The sharp chirping call of the dipper and the sight of the first celandines were welcome signs of the turning of the season. Visits to this website however  just bring fresh reminders of the consequences of the New Order as the roll-call of departed blippers continues to mount. (Even worse, their farewell blips appear to be censored.) I was very sorry to see that SwillinBilly has handed in his notice, and he is by no means the only one. Read what he says and the comments that follow if you don't believe that there is something rotten in the State of Bliparoid.