A pair of white throated dippers

I managed a brief interlude standing on the banks of the River Frome near Capel's Mill having walked from near the town centre along the towpath of the canal. I met a volunteer for the Cotswold Canal Trust who was walking the towpath to check for any problems and I mentioned the dippers were a sight to behold, as he had never seen them before. I showed him where they tended to appear when eating, resting and flying into their nests, but none appeared whilst we chatted.

Eventually I went to my usual spot where I hope to observe kingfishers as they prepare to fly into a nest, but today I saw none. A wagtail entertained me dancing about the rocks and the leafy banks leaping into the air after flying insects. But the dippers didn't appear either.

I walked back to the old footbridge and stood looking admiringly down the river where it flows between the nature reserve called Fromebanks. Then I spotted a dipper on a rock gently putting its head underwater from a rock. It flew off over the remnants of the old weir, back to where |i had been watching for kingfishers. I saw it land on a mossy rock sticking up out of the water in the centre of the river. then i saw it was close to a second dipper sitting or squatting on the top of the adjacent rock.

I walked gingerly closer and they didn't fly away and just watched them as the first dipper approached the perched one. They looked at each other and after a minute the first dipper stretched its wings a couple of times and then it flew away downstream. What a delight. I left them to their river life with a big smile on my face knowing I'd be back before long.