Thought I would share this info, some intresting stuff about my local Dippers:
I posted the above image on a birdforum covering my local county of Cheshire. I took the Dipper images in a small village Nr Macclesfield called Wildboarclough on the edge of East Cheshire in March of 2010. The county recorder saw the images and gave the following reply, it makes intresting reading:
"Re the Dipper picture, as you can see this is a colour ringed individual. South Manchester Ringing Group in conjuction with Professor Stuart Sharpe at Sheffield UniV are mid way through a BTO RAS ( retrapping adults for Survival) project on Dippers. The blue colour ring above the BTO metal denotes the river (in this case Clough Brook) and the colour ring combination on the left leg, which territory/pair it was first trapped at. This is a male who was paired with a female by the picnic site near Yarnshaw Hill in 2009. The colour ringing means we dont have to try and recatch the adults as they can be identified from excellent pictures like the one posted.
At Wildboarclough, the Dippers ( and there are up to six pairs down to the A54 bridge from Bottom of the Oven) tend not to spend all winter on territory, most birds decend to lower levels during the winter months. It seems to be the experienced females who get back to key territories (mostly nest boxes under the bridges) first, and then lure a passing male as they move back up the brook ! So the girls are very much in charge in the Dippering world of Clough Brook at least! Having said that we did have one male who manged two females and two broods under adjacent bridges 100m apart in 2009, and even manged a second brood with one of them, who was actually his daughter from a previous season. Would make a good soap opera I think !"
How about that for a few facts about my local bird
More images of the same bird.....
and some of its partner
A real Head-turner!!
A real Head-turner!!
in the blink of an eye....
shes just looking too damn pretty
As a foot note I have been back to their territory a couple of times in January but have not yet spotted their return, well maybe they will very soon I hope.
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