Dodder

One of the birds that I had on my wish list this year was a Dipper - now I know what you are going to say - they are not too hard to find - yes true but it helps to leave the house!!! So when a friend in the Tolka Branch told she was doing a project on them and would I like to come out with her one day I jumped at the chance so on Monday 1st June I went off in me car to meet Susan!

The beautiful Dipper.

Susan brought me down to the Dodder to where the Dipper is nesting under the weir - which I think EVERYONE knows. We have only gotten out the car about 4mins and Susan says there's one....... I looked and looked and looked but couldn't see it for the rocks until one of the ROCKS moved and turned out to be a beautiful Dipper.

The weir where they are nesting

We stayed there for a while watching them going in and out the weir feeding their young and spotted a pair of Grey Wag Tails.

Grey Wag Tails - who had just been doing a bit of courting!!!

Then we headed to another site to try and see some Fledglings who were still being fed by the parents. It took a while but we did manage to find one 'Baby'.

Susan at home at the Dodder.

Then we spotted this fellow waddling down the weir.

Mr Mallard

Further on up the Dodder we were serenaded by the funniest sounding Song thrush - really sounded like a mobile phone - we were actually just waiting for it to break out in to the Nokia tune - see Nokia there is a money grabbing scheme for you!!!

Over head were plenty of House Martins and Sand Martins, not to mention Blackbirds, Magpies (Ever noticed how the fledglings look so scrawny and don't have a full tail???), Greenfinches (who sound as grumpy as they look) and LOTS and LOTS of Flies!

We also came across this young Chap who got spooked and headed off to refuge on top of the nearest Apartment block haha.

Juvenile Heron.

When we got back to car I realised that we had been out for nearly 2 hours.

Thank you Susan for a great bit of Urban Birding!!

Check out the Dodder if you live near as there is plenty of Biodiversity out there right under your nose!