White throated dippers

The exhibition vent went well today but I felt exhausted after it was over.  To relax I went down to the River Frome to have a look for white throated dippers.  I walked along the river bank wondering if I would see one and stood still to let my eyes just gaze. After a few minutes of seeing no birds, I noticed a slight movement by piece of driftwood on the other bank.

It carried on moving and I slowly lifted my camera to see if it picked anything up and there was a dipper.  I was delighted and didn't mind when it flew a few yards further downstream onto a rock and then onto a branch in the water.  I tried to edge closer but a walker came towards me and disturbed it.

A few minutes later I spotted it again, but this time it flew upstream  towards me to land on the far bank, and as it did so I saw it was joining up with its mate, who you can just see to the left in the picture, standing and waiting.  They then did a little dance, jigging up and down while standing side by side, before both diving into the water and submerging to feed on the bottom for a few seconds.

They are such delightful small birds and I am blipping this picture as there don't seem to be many pictures on blip of them flying.  It was already getting towards dusk so it was quite dark.  Maybe one day I will be able to catch them well in better light.