麻豆社

Jonny Keeling visits the streams and rivers of Lathkill Dale in Derbyshire to find some secretive small birds. One day, he heard the high-pitched call of a dipper looking for kingfishers and discovered the dippers living in the dale. Characteristically bobbing up and down with a white blaze on its front the dipper is an easily recognisable bird. Jonny films the dippers as they collect moss from the damp river area to build their nests. They take about two weeks to complete the nest, first creating a dome of moss, then lining it with leaves before laying 4-6 pure white eggs. The dipper is very well adapted to water, as when they dive they use their wings to pull them under, taking them to the bottom where they can hang on with their long toes. The food the dipper is looking for underwater is caddis fly larvae and mayfly nymphs, which they feed to their young every 30 or 40 seconds at the peak of the day. At about 18 or 19 days the young dippers leave the nest but the parents continue to feed them. By watching the actions of the parents they soon learn to feed themselves.