Not necessarily rare if you are in the right parts of Britain, but one bird species that eluded me while living in London was the dipper. More widespread in Scotland, Wales, the Northwest and Southwest of England, I would have had to drive far to see one. Having moved to the outskirts of Bristol from London, my immediate consolation was I’d have shorter distances to cover if I ever wanted to see one.

But while browsing YouTube videos, I learned, by pure chance, that the dipper is seen along some fast-running local streams around where I live now! That opportune discovery set my plan for the following day instantaneously.

I woke up early the following day. This is partly to avoid the morning car traffic, but I still vaguely believe that birds are, in general, most active in the morning. But these days, this mantra has been proven wrong somewhat, and as I would discover, this particular dipper appeared late as if to remind me to have a re-think once again on my golden rule on successful birdwatching.

Because I had seen some videos of the dipper perched nonchalantly on a pebble or rock in shallow waters, or of one propelling itself underwater in search of larvae and nymphs, I knew roughly what kind of habitat I should be looking for. From the videos, I also assumed a high level of activity diving in and out of water feeding.

When I counted several fly-bys from the local kingfisher along the stretch of the stream I was watching, with a rather loud wingbeat, something dumpy has landed nearby. A fat blackbird? I turned around.

No, it was the dipper, the star of the show!

Perched on a driftwood in the shadow of the riverbank, it looked relaxed and preened itself. And this went on forever. I wondered ‘Isn’t it hungry? Hasn’t it arrived here to feed??’

As I found out later, this is such an important part of their routine before diving into water, to make their feathers waterproof using the oil from the uropygial gland. More of a preconditioning before getting wet. Hence they take extra time.

Check the following photo for the remarkable end result of the treatment! It would give Teflon a run for its money!

I have a question for you. When the dipper dives, do you think it keeps its eyes open or closed?

I must admit I don’t have the definitive answer but I have loads of photos of the dipper with its eyes closed. Such as this one here.

The caveat is such photos show only one side of the dipper, so I cannot tell if the other eye was open or not. Moreover, it could be that the dipper blinks a lot and my camera caught such moments.

Here’s a short edited video of the dipper foraging underwater. It looks as though it never blinks!

A different footage posted by another YouTuber of the dipper foraging underwater recorded its movement excellently and looked like its eyes were open, perhaps covered by nictitating membrane. Soon I will have to strategically position an underwater action cam to see if this dipper is an anomaly which hates getting wet, or its eyes are wide open once underwater.

After spending good several hours with the dipper, I became totally obsessed with this rather unusual, unique bird. Normally with any bird, its appearance, characteristics, and features can be more or less fully explained by the bird’s survival needs. For instance, the strong beak of the hawfinch to crush even the kernels of hard-stoned fruits or the feather structure of the owl to enable their near-silent flight. The dipper, on the other hand, seems like a creature inconvenienced by its preferred habitat, or at least it looks so handicapped given how it preys in water.

For starters, why don’t they have webbed feet if they spend so much time in water looking for food? Although you might not be able to tell from the still photos, this little bird was wading, fighting the formidable force of a fast running water! Surely, won’t a pair of webbed feet make better sense or make their lives a lot easier when underwater?

Another question was the cost benefit analysis of its feeding behaviour. Grabbing hold of itself in fast-running stream must consume a lot of energy let alone losing heat by staying in water. And look at the first photo for the size of its catch! The bird must eat a lot of it to make such feeding effort worthwhile. Although some might argue that larvae and nymphs provide plenty of calories and nutrients needed by the dipper, I cannot help but wonder why the dipper didn’t evolve to eat other, easier-to-catch type of prey, without the risk of energy loss due to staying in water let alone the need for cautious preparation before dipping into water.

The bird certainly makes an intriguing case to study from an evolutionary perspective.

Lastly, let’s watch this very short video.

Have you noticed something?

The dipper blinks in the same way as us humans! I always thought that most birds blink in the opposite direction, namely, from bottom to top. Besides, the dipper has an eyeshadow which I think makes them quite charming and endearing.

Someone once said that even non-birdwatchers easily fall in love with owls because unlike other birds, owls have their eyes not on the sides of the skull, but facing front like humans. That similarity, I heard, is one of the reasons why there are many people who love owls.

If this theory is anything to go by, more people will surely become fascinated with this chic, intriguing bird which blinks in the same way as we do!

Oops, I’m sorry for calling you ‘something dumpy’ earlier…..