Gorgeous evening tonight so I cycled back to Drimnagh via the Dodder river. Wished I had my binoculars with me, there were loads of birds out in the sun and it would have been nice to get a close up of them.
What I didn't need my binoculars for were the Dippers on the Dodder. At a bend in the river, not far from the clonskeagh entrance were 2 Dippers (I assumed female and male) flying up and down the same flight path repeatedly after each other.
At first it seemed like it was the male continuously flying after the female whilst she repeatedly flew away, but then sometimes I got the feeling it was the female also flying after the male.
It was one of those times I wished I had a mini camcorder to video the event, because it was such a sight to see. Every now and then, one of them would take a breather on a rock, or by the side of the river, they'd also take little breaks by dipping themselves in the river - but the majority of time was spent flying low over the river chasing each other.
I was careful not to disturb them and they were still flying up and down the same flight path when I left- so Good luck to them!
I cycled on further (seeing yet another dipper, didn't see any mate though) and arrived at the stone bridge where I saw Sand Martins nesting last year. It was in this area I also saw loads of Swallows and House Martins, so I stopped here hoping for some kind of a sighting.
It wasn't to be, but that sighting of the Dippers flying was something else, so it was a great little detour.
