Twite, fairly dark-bellied dipper and a chiffchaff

The day started out quite foggy and by the time I got to Deer Hill reservoir for my annual visit to see the twite I wondered if it was stupid to set out on my walk at all. I could see maybe 75 metres but there was no sign of life. As I turned right along the bridleway I began to hear skylarks very close by; I also heard grouse, pheasant, lapwing and curlew. Soon I began to meet meadow pipits in the gloom. A walker sped past saying 'You won't see much today, lad!' Perhaps he thought I was stupid too. I wasn't sure whether being called 'lad' was friendly or an acknowledgement of my daftness, peering through my bins in the fog!

Eventually I scaled the wall-stile and turned left towards the reservoir. On the north-east corner of the resevoir [SE 073116] there is a stone-built buttress and this is where the twite are usually found. There is said to be a feeding station and I assume this is the area as they feed on the ground here. A yellow-billed male was singing from the top corner of the buttress. I watched a while and turned back. It was cold and still very foggy.

Mission accomplished I would make my final visit to Baildon to see if I could solve the mystery of the black-bellied Dipper.

Dipper

Dipper Dipper

After walking upstream and downstream from the railway bridge at SE 158385 photographing goosanders I spotted a dipper about 150 metres downstream. I did my best to creep up on it and suddenly a second flew in so there were now 2 dippers on the rock! Surely one was the bbd! I took as many photos as possible on a range of settings. It was hard to tell if one was the target bird but certainly one looked darker. Close examination of the photos later would decide.

Or would it? My conclusion was that although one was darker neither was a true black-bellied dipper. I posted a photo on BirdGuides and asked if any one else had photographed the black-bellied dipper in the Shipley/Baildon area. Many thanks to Sam Viles who linked me in to the Bradford Ornithological Group website blog archive on the bird. The general conclusion is much the same: this is a fairly black-bellied bird but not true to the type that a sightings committee would accept. Oh well, now I know and with that I am quite satisfied.

A link to the BOG website is included below.

http://bogimages.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/images-of-dipper-shipley.html

Goosander Goosander Goosander

Finally that afternoon I decided to detour my route home via Fairburn Ings to check out the sand martins which were extremely conspicuous [by their complete absence!] A chiffchaff was watched in the scrub by the new Lin Dike hide [now open] moving silently in front of me. Only when I turned away did it begin to sing its identity song. The new hide, by the way, takes standards of discomfort to a whole new level. Is the seating incomplete or have the local living dead already sabotaged the seats as much as they like to sabotage their own lives and hopes?

Sorry! Not worth a separate post, but on Saturday 24th March went to Lumby Garden Centre for some ericaceous compost - strolled down the cut and saw and heard a green woodpecker in his normal big tree on the left about a quarter of the way along the cut. At the very top, head and bill pointing skyward he was screaming like a horse in agony. And in case you didn't know, all green woodpeckers are absolutely bonkers!!

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