One River: There's no place like home!

To think! We nearly decided to stay at home today as the forecast didn't look promising. In the event, apart from one of those irritating showers that stops by the time you've got your waterproofs on, it remained fine. I decided to do the next leg of my River Don Walk - from Oughtibridge to Middlewood and Mr PB came along too - just a short section but we walked there and back. It is the nearest section to home and is a really pleasant walk through woodland and close to the river. There were lots of Dippers - we reckoned we saw at least 6, probably a lot more but you can never be sure that you're not counting the same birds twice if you walk there and back. They are so-and-so's to photograph. They live in places where the light is difficult, especially on a sunny day, their black and white plumage makes it difficult as well and they are fidgety little things, preening, sticking their heads under water, bobbing up and down.
We also saw Kingfishers which we knew were around but had never seen on this section of the river. We saw the first one as soon as we hit the path by the river, then got numerous glimpses as we did our walk. On the return leg we saw what we thought was a youngster, getting a fishing lesson by the edge of the river. they were a long way off so I wasn't able to get a good shot but I managed to get closer to this youngster after the parent had flown away.