I have spent the last couple of weeks, as you probably know, sat camouflaged by the side of the River Teign in the hope of getting some first class shots of a Dipper. It has become my latest obsession at the expense of almost everything else in my life apart from my love of  LYMPSTONE SOUTH WEST TELECOMS BAND of course. Today was no exception and after a nice breakfast Jenny and I went our separate ways, she to a Craft Day and me to spend a few more hours trussed up like a camouflaged corpse by the river.

For some odd reason I just knew that today was going to be a bit special, I imagined seeing the Kingfisher come and perch close to me, but then I  pulled myself together………… little did I realise that it would actually happen!  My “camo”  is doing really well and I have to say that I was, unusually, pretty certain that it was doing the business today and I was blending in to the scenery like a want to. It must have been  working because after a while, there it was a male Kingfisher just feet from me and perched, as I had fantasised, on the stick that I had placed there for the very purpose.  I have been to the River here around 10 times and spent around 25 hours just sitting patiently…….. waiting. The resident KF has flown by me at least once a visit, sometimes twice but never stopped in my area……. until today that is.  I didn’t manage to get a shot because he left the perch after just a few seconds.  I didn’t even manage to raise my ‘shutter finger”, let alone press it, but it was a bit of a wow moment.  But it got even better than that. The Dipper came and went for some reason and I wondered why?  He was definitely on the ball though because he had, without doubt, seen potential disaster and he wasn’t hanging around to risk it! As I sat concealed, a Sparrowhawk flew from directly above me and landed in a tree just down stream and opposite. I searched and searched in the foliage for at least a minute, but could I see it? Suddenly it left the tree and landed on a rock in midstream as you can see above. It was a male and he had come down to try for a Dipper I am sure. He kept his back to me for most of the time and after a minute he flew in to the bankside vegetation to try for a kill.  He was not successful, and then immediately left and flew down stream, leaving me to break out in to one of those broad grins that happen when you have just seen something really special and awe inspiring. Glad he didn’t get my Dipper, but imagine the photo if he had!

I never did get the Dipper right where I wanted, that’s right in front of me but I was reassured that I was almost invisible when one of the resident Grey Wagtails landed so close to me that for ages I couldn’t get a shot of her because the lens couldn’t focus on her when she was that close.
It was interesting to watch her feeding. She found a Caddis Fly Larva in a case. She stripped it and then ate the, now exposed tasty looking grub.
In the photos below you can see the larva in the case and then out and ready to eat.