black bellied dipper feeding from Neil Phillips on Vimeo.
On Sunday I visited the black bellied dipper which has set up home on the river there. It was by the Bridge Inn and sitting on the opposite river bank, before then diving for food. Dipper of course are usually not found in East Anglia, this bird has wandered over from mainland Europe, where the black bellied sub species is usually found.
This bird was feeding on the caddisfly larvae in the river. The caddisfly larvae build cases out of stones, leaves and twigs etc, what they use depends on the species and what is around. The fist larva in the video has used a piece of blue plastic in its case! You can see the dipper thrashing the larva after they catch it, to remove the larvae from its case.
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