A county tick!

It's always nice to get a new Northants county tick and to be honest they are far from frequent. So when the surprising and exciting news of a Black-Bellied Dipper turning up at Sywell Country Park on the afternoon of Saturday 29/02, I was very keen to see it! This continental Black-Bellied (cinclus) race is a rare but annual visitor to the UK and was one I was yet to see.

I couldn't really make it until the following morning, but knowing they tend to stick around, I was hopeful it would hang on.

Sunday 01/03 was a really nice, sunny day, a rare occasion so far this year! I purposefully made my way over to Sywell, on the way noticing the news pop up on my phone, that the bird was indeed still present - good news.

I arrived just after 07:30am and was quickly reassured by a passing birder coming the other way, that the Dipper was showing well, along the stream cascade down from the dam. Indeed it was, immediately pointed out to me sat on one of the cascade steps.







I spent a good 45 minutes enjoying it going about it's business. It spent a lot of time sitting around slightly bobbing away on the concrete edging - quite honestly not doing very much! But every now and then, it would drop down in the water after food. It was lovely to enjoy a great bird, with the sun shining on my back and seeing a few familiar Northants birding faces too!





The poor thing had a tough time of it after I left, miraculously surviving a Sparrowhawk attack and after a couple more days, disappeared - hopefully back towards the continent and not in the belly of the local Sprawk!