I really do admire those people who manage really good Dipper photos. They would test the skill of even the very best photographers. For starters they are almost always in the dullest places on the river bank; you know, tucked close in, next to a an over hanging branch in the shade of a boulder, or something like that. Then, add to that the white breast which can deceive the camera in to under-exposing everything else in the picture, particularly the body of the bird. Then there is the brightness of the water which is always bubbling and frothing, again making it hard for the camera to adjust to the two contrasts. What is needed is a fast shutter speed to enable the photographer to manually over-expose the picture but this in my experience is rarely possibly because of the dullness of light as already discussed. Oh, and I forgot to say that the bird, aptly named, continually dips under the water and hops about so you have that to contend with this as well. So all in all, even though this is my best Dipper photo in the last 2 years, it still is not quite up to the standard that I will be happy with!
So there I was again out at Dunsford and Stepps Bridge trying to get a good shot of the Goldcrests that I know are about. From the Bridge you are at eye level with the tree tops and yesterday I had seen them quite close but at the tops of the trees. I spent quite a while just waiting for such an opportunity but it didn't happen. I decided to go down to the bankside to have a look at the woodpecker hole that I had seen, and photographed yesterday, and was standing there with the camera pointed up at the hole when a little bit over movement caught my eye……… it was a Goldcrest, very close and not really making the usual commotion in that excited but squeaky way. I quickly got some photos, still not quite good enough but getting better. I think that this bird had just emerged from a nest because it was very secretive and not acting in the way that I would have expected.

Expectation, or to be more precise the 'unexpected" was the name of the game today because being pretty confidant that the Goldcrest would return to his territory, well I had seen a pair in the exact same spot yesterday, I stood for a few minutes(or longer) waiting. Suddenly a Sparrowhawk shot above me and proceeded to weave in and out of the undergrowth giving me an "unexpected" and brilliant view.