Dipper update

I might have lost my voice this week but the birds haven't. One or two green peckers were yaffling, wrens' songs were shooting out from the bracken undergrowth, and half a dozen crows were noisily mobbing a buzzard over White Coppice. Not to mention all the chaffinches, robins and tits. But as for the song thrush, it took one look at me and shut up!

And guess what - the dippers are now working together, flying in and out the water pipe - nest building. I hope the little dippers don't try to leave the nest before they can fly though - a perilous plummet to unforgiving rocks awaits them.

The grey wagtails are still looking very settled together, always within a few metres of each other, and a male stonechat has found his partner. I wonder if it's the same pair that successfully raised up to three fledglings last year in the same area.

Further along the path two pairs of reed buntings were busy flying round their patches and further still a pair of goldfinch.

On the lodge a pair of great crested grebes and a pair of goldeneye with another female nearby - I wonder what will happen there?

Dipper photo copied from http://www.iol.ie/%7Ecarigeen/Wildlife.htm
Male goldeneye by Mike Attkinson http://www.mikeatkinson.ne