First time ‘Dippers’

By Jennifer Harnden March 2024

The thunderous roar of the waterfalls filled the moist cold air.   The walk alongside this Scottish waterfall, simply wonderful.   After a mile or so enjoying this world heritage site, we arrived at a large footbridge across, when, something caught my eye as we admired the masses of swirling, clean, cold water below us.   A tiny bird was sat on a rock in the middle of the river, and looking like it may fly away at any moment. Quickly reaching for my camera, I zoomed in, and yes it was a dipper!   Neither, myself or my husband, had ever seen a dipper before, so we were both thrilled to share this ‘first sighting’ of one together.

This small bird, with a white, and chocolate brown frontal plumage, was daringly perched there on a rock, bobbing up and down, amongst this fast-flowing dangerous river, constantly looking around. Then after only a short while, there were two! I would imagine that they were a courting pair. One of the birds then stretched it’s neck to the sky and started to sing, not that we could hear it clearly due to the powerful roar of the stunning waterfalls and rapids all around us.

There will be many thoughts around why dippers do the dancing 'dip' motion that they do, however, they are known to be territorial, so perhaps it is a demonstration of their strength, attracting the opposite sex, and also for warning off rivals. These birds are captivating to watch, and appear fearless as they leap off the rock and dive straight into the torrent of water hunting for their food.

We felt happy to see these birds and enjoyed our brief moments watching them. We will certainly keep an eye out for them again whenever we are out walking near any fast-flowing streams and rivers. In some areas of the country dippers are seen as 'regular' every day birds, however, we haven't seen them where we live. They have been mostly spotted in upland areas across the UK, and also in the South West of England.  

The British Trust for Ornithology have highlighted that although the UK Dipper numbers in the UK have fluctuated in recent decades, there is now sadly an overall downward trend, and this species is now on the UK Amber List under the Birds of Conservation Concern 5: the Red List for Birds (2021). 

So on this sunny and fresh February weekend, walking in Southern Scotland, we enjoyed being 'first time dippers’, sensibly not ourselves dipping into the dangerously fast flowing river, (although I am known to enjoy the occasional cold water dip in somewhat less treacherous conditions of course) but, of our first sightings of these tiny, fast and daring birds, the dippers! 

To ensure that we keep populations of birds like the dipper healthy, I understand that some Wildlife Trusts are working towards a ‘Living Landscape' which is a network of habitats and wildlife corridors across town and country which are good for both wildlife and people. I would also expect there is an essential and urgent need to include keeping our rivers, streams and waters clean from pollutants. They need fresh clean waters to survive!

Hopefully, this our sighting of these dippers, Britain's aquatic songbird, was our first of many more!