dowles brook

17/02/09
this is the post which will get most people anoyed. it was dipper that surprised me.not a british 'red bellied' one but a probable continental 'black bellied' one.i mean a dipper had a black belly that means a 'cinclus' dont it.unless someone has heard of a british dipper showing a black belly. but it chose to show its self at a very bad time.when we had to get back to the car before our time limit runs out.we first saw a 'red bellied' dipper so decided to have another look at it further downstream.while walking very slowly to see if we could see it and near a area where a lot of branches have near enough clogged up the stream. now i could see the british dipper on a tree root in the water about 15m away.i was about to look through my scope when woooooooosh. a pair of mandarins flushed from brook and landed 'on' the dipper scaring it half to death and it flew away again and the manders followed suit and left shorty after. we got to the grassland bit(a bit before end of dry mill lane) and relocated the manders and i started to take a video.it then wouldent save it and i lost the film(very important for later)after walking quite long and seeing jack we decided to walk back along the brook instead of the planned route along the old railway line.and again we saw nothing till we reached that 30m strech of the brook where the dipper was.we again followed that route we took before.i was leading and my dad was behind.i stopped dead as i saw a dipper less than 3 metres away.i hushed my dad to be quiet as he realised the dipper was so close.i looked back at the dipper and my brain went into overdrive as i realised that this wasent the red belly we found earlier.it had a black belly.for about 10 seconds it just stood there.then it was gone.i rushed on and scanned for the dipper, no sign, crap.so here i was with no notes photos or videos and only my dads word to say that we had been watching a black bellied dipper.my dad moved closer to the edge and the dipper flushd again(god i really hate flushing birds its not good for the bird or the birders).my dad caried on to the car as we had only half an hour to get back to the car parked in bewdley.not good. i bit the bullet and went back for one last glimse and there he was perched on a rock in the brook.i imidiatly grabbed for my phone so i could get some photos.i got one that shown the birds black belly and the phone started to save it.then popped up saving failed(i now know the reason for it not saving was because there was no signal on my phone)so instead i wrote notes.heres the extract of an email i sent to brian strech about the id: the bird looked mostly a sooty black colour but the head showed a very dark brown tinge which stood out.it had darker fringes to the scapulars giving a scolloped look.these dark fringes dessended all the way to the rump.it had a slightly darker lore and an entirely black bill.the most obvious feature though was the black belly.which showed no lighter colours at all.the secondarys and primarys were black apart from pale fringes to them.the legs were dark.the bird was watched at extremly close range of about 2 metres. as i mentioned in the txt it was reluctant to flush untill very late.
now i had the notes i rushed towards bewdley along the r severn paying little notice of the 8 goosander,kingfisher and little grebe on the river(my first ever on a river)i txt the news out to the very few contacts i know eg brian streach,andy shaw and my friend andy(from the west mids).i have submitted a rarity form to the county recorder.so now i just hope ittle get accepted. i dont think it will, cause of its extreme rarity and the fact it was seen by a 13 year old birder(but i have been birding 4 nearly 5 years)if it dont get accepted it wont go on my list its as simple as that and mabey the fact that i only mention the good bird seen,on this blog which gives the impression i only see good birds.so from now on i will include all days birding even if all i say is 'jack about boring day'.ive been neglecting the other birds seen by not mentioning them so here are the highlights:
mandarin duck-2
goshalk-1
lr sd woodpecker(seen only 100yars from where one is now)
dipper-1
posible b b dipper-1
nuthatch-2(first 4 year)