I took advantage of the lovely spring weather last week and visited my local happy place, the Wyre forest just 30 minutes from home. I arrived just after dawn and was greeted by a glorious dawn chorus in full swing. It was very obvious that the Chiffchaffs had arrived back from Africa on mass as they were very vocal. Some people find their Chiff-Chaff song monotonous but I love it (!), it almost feels to me that they are shouting “spring is here!”
I spent the first couple of hours looking for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. To cut a long story short, I heard drilling and was treated to one very brief view that did not trouble my camera. Not to worry, that’s better than nothing and I will almost certainly be back very soon!
Around mid-morning I relocated to Dowles Brook to look for Dippers and immediately spotted one looking very chilled out and inactive on a branch over the stream. Dippers are small, chunky, stout, short-tailed, short-winged, strong-legged birds with brown bodies except for a clean white breast. Their name, and yes you’ve guessed it, comes from their bobbing and dipping movements. I think I’m right in saying that their ability to dive and swim underwater is unique among passerines. They are extremely well adapted to this niche with small wings that act like flippers and feathers that trap small bubbles of air providing thermal insulation. They have a much higher concentration of haemoglobin in their blood than other passerines and a slower metabolic rate allowing them to stay under water for extended periods. They are quite happy diving into rapid and turbulent water which would surely drown any other passerine. Their prey consist largely of invertebrate larvae such as that of caddisflies.
Dippers typically nest early, with construction often starting in January or February and egg-laying occurring in March or early April. It was therefore somewhat surprising to find no nesting activity at the usual sites along the stream. My sedentary Dipper on its branch certainly showed no interest in nesting activity but I guess it was possible that its mate was incubating eggs somewhere.
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| European White-bellied Dipper |
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| American Dipper, Costa Rica, November 2025 |
Our European Dipper bears a strong resemblance, both in appearance and habit, to the American Dipper that I was lucky enough to see in Costa Rica last November. While the American Dipper is a somewhat greyer bird, it is usually found in the same fast flowing streams as the European bird and from my observations of the central American bird its general behaviour and feeding habits seemed essentially identical to its european cousin. I wondered whether this was a case of convergent evolution but DNA analysis has shown that European dipper (Cinclus cinclus) and American dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) are genetically related and belong to the same genus, Cinclus, which is the only genus in the family Cinclidae. DNA studies further suggest that all dipper species share a single ancestor which likely originated in Eurasia and later expanded into the Americas. The first true birds are thought to have evolved approximately 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period. Given that it is some 200 million years since North America was connected to Europe by means of the Pangaea supercontinent this certainly seems rather puzzling to me. In fact further research told me that all five extant dipper species diverged from a common European ancestor roughly 4 million years ago. I guess some of these ancient European birds found their way to America somehow, perhaps storm blown, and eventually evolved into a separate species due to geographic isolation. Apparently the American Dipper has existed as a native species in North America for thousands of years. I guess the lack of great evolutionary divergence from its european cousin shows just how uniquely well adapted it is to its fast flowing water habitat.
On my way home from the forest I popped into Grimley, primarily to see if there were any Sand Martins in yet but I didn’t see any. Again, the hedge rows and bushes were alive with singing Chiffchaff and I also heard and saw my first singing male Blackcap of the year. The male Reed Buntings were very active and vocal from the top of the sedge and reeds giving some good photo opportunities. I’m as guilty as the next person in terms of being rather dismissive of our common birds and it’s easy to take birds like the Reed Bunting for granted but the singing male in breeding plumage was well worth pausing to watch.
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| Male Reed Bunting |
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