THE RETURN OF
THE KING
by Paul Risley
After being informed I write too much I have decided to use video's more to get whats happening across. this is early April and it shows both birds excavating a new nest hole, much of the banking here was washed away during the floods over winter including both nest holes that had previously been used. hence all the bear roots hanging down, bear with the video and it will probably be clearer on full screen. It shows the male bird coming out of the hole and going out of sight to bath, the female flies in to carry on digging, the male returns to perch near the hole before getting bored and wanting to carry on with the digging himself, he flies into the hole but is chased out again by the female, male comes out backwards female forwards indicating she is now working on the nest chamber itself as she can now turn around in the hole.
Nearby the Grey Wagtails have started their season very early and now have young, hopefully the weather will remain kind for these birds, when the sun comes out so do the flies and both parents can quickly get good quantities
Another of the locals, the Dippers at this site fly down this overflow tunnel, it is just short of 70 feet in lenght (20.8 meters) and only 2 and a half feet above the water before flying vertically up to the nest next to a waterfall, god knows how the youngsters are going to fare, they can get to it by flying above the tunnel too.
Spot the Nest
Look at the centre of the video just below the height of the waterfall and not very far from it you can see the moss were the birds have filled the hole in the wall, very well camouflaged, at the bottom on the wall opposite the waterfall is the tunnel that the birds fly through
One of the birds nest building