A pair of Dippers nest locally every year under a bridge on the River Derwent. They are back on territory from their wintering site now. I've tried to photograph them on numerous occasions in the past, without much success, but recent heavy rain has caused the river to rise, covering their usual mid-stream perches. This one was oblivious to my approach, and was quite happy to pose. The name comes from their bobbing action, and has nothing to do with their underwater feeding habit. It's always accompanied by blinking of their white upper eyelid, but blinking isn't necessarily accompanied by bobbing. Blinking is a message signal which increases in frequency when the bird is excited or disturbed. The delicate upper eyelid has a fine brown eyelash to border it. A membrane covers the nostrils whilst under water.
These images were taken with a Canon EOS 1D Mk IV DSLR with a 500mm Canon lens with a 2X Mk III converter, on a Gitzo 3 series tripod and Systematic head. Exposure details: 1/250sec @ F8, ISO 800. Processed with Adobe Lightroom.