Dipper and Grey Wagtail

A couple of weeks ago, my wife picked me up for lunch and we drove down to Marsh Mills and parked up overlooking the River Plym (see location below). It was a lovely day, clear blue sky and bright sunshine, and the water was looking very inviting!

Whilst say in the car having our lunch, I noticed a little bird fly by on the opposite side of the river and stop on a small log.  I didn’t really take much notice of it until I noticed it start to bob up and down, like a Dipper. This got me excited as I had never seen a Dipper before, even though I had been on the look out for a long time, mostly when I had been cycling along Drake’s Trail which runs parallel to the River Plym. I got the binoculars out and had a look, and it was definitely a Dipper! It was great to see, especially when two more flew by and stopped at various points along the river bank!

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera on me so I couldn’t take any photographs, but below is an image of a Dipper from the RSPB website.

As you can see from the image, it is a slightly strange looking bird and actually reminds me a bit of a chicken. 😉 It is very distinctive though, with the white breast, brown head and darker wings and rear, and you can tell a Dipper in flight as it flies fairly low and its wings don’t look like they are flapping but whirring, which reminds me more of a Humming Bird. Along with its bobbing when near the water, it is a very interesting bird to watch. It is a common resident in the South West and Western side of the UK and can mostly be found by fast flowing rivers, although the River Plym was quite slow flowing that day!

Amazingly, that was not the only bird that we saw in our 30 minute spell overlooking the river. Whilst I was viewing the Dipper through my binoculars, a Grey Wagtail flew in and landed on the river bank as well! I hadn’t seen one of these before either, although my wife is quite sure we have, so I couldn’t really believe my eyes when it appeared.

The Grey Wagtail was so prominent against the colour of the river bank due to its bright yellow breast, that it stood out ever so well! I find it strange that it is called a Grey Wagtail due to its bright yellow section, but I suppose it is named after the top of its body, which is grey. It was a lovely bird to watch and took my attention away from the Dipper completely!

This bird is a resident in most of the country throughout the year, but mostly in the East during Winter. Unfortunately, they are badly affected when we have a really bad Winter and are currently on the Amber List species, which means it is moderately in decline. It has a longer tail than other Wagtails, which I found quite noticeable, as it looked much bigger than its cousins. I hope to see this lovely bird again when I next visit the area.