Dippers on the Afon Llwyd

I recently returned to one of my favourite locations along the Afon Llywd River to watch Dippers.

Dippers are fascinating birds to watch. They are the only aquatic song birds in the UK. Its outside breeding season now so I can try and get a closer look at them without causing any disturbance. One of the birds was quite confiding and I spent quite a bit of time making a video of it feeding.

You can see it diving into the water and popping back up with a caddis fly larvae.

It then shakes the larvae to get its gravelly shell off it and then eat it.

I find Dippers easy to find but hard to get a good sharp picture of them. The light is often poor along the river and not ideal. The video footage actually came out quite well. I recently went to a Gwent Ornithological Meeting and listened  to a great presentation about Dippers. When I watch this Dipper I noticed that it seemed to wash its beak every time before diving back into the water to hunt for more larvae.

Dippers are a key indicator species for water quality. This bodes well for the Afon Llwyd which in the past was one of the most polluted rivers in Wales.

Dipper , Afon Llwyd

Dipper, Afon Llwyd

Dipper , Afon Llwyd

Dipper, Afon Llwyd




Video of Dipper Feeding

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