I’m a month or so behind on writing blogs posts. It’s gloriously sunny outside and has been for a few weeks. It’s not rained too much, which is lowering the water levels in the becks and rivers, hopefully this wont effect the life that depends on them, too greatly.
The waterfall is beautiful but quite dangerous and has taken lives in the past.
Spring is a lovely time to spend time with birdlife, they are often very busy, making connections, defending territories and building nests to be too fussed about a bloke with a big lens. Of course, I do take care to not disturb the birds and back off I notice a change in behaviour. I often choose locations that have heavy footfall, so the birds are more used to humans and appear less effected by our presence.
I ventured out to a local water course called Harden beck. It’s quite a short beck, only around nine miles in length. It’s a very popular location, especially in nice weather, with quite a locally famous waterfall called Goit stock
A wider shot of the waterfall area.
I start the day by parking near Harden Bridge, its roughly a mile and half to the waterfall and I’ll stop at various points along the way. The area is tranquil now, compared to its recent history when industrialisation appeared and utilised the beck for power and cleaning, with at least six mills in this short valley. Only one mill is operational now, producing paper, the others either converted to apartments or demolished with the odd bit of masonry poking through the undergrowth.
The birdlife I’m mainly hoping to see are the Dippers. There are at least two pairs nesting on this stretch between Harden Bridge and Goitstock waterfall. There are also a few grey wagtails, occasionally a kingfisher, along side the more traditional woodland birds.
Dipper by the waterfall pool
It’s not long before I hear that familiar high pitched call of a dipper flying past, so I tuck myself away by the edge and sit and wait for a while. I take the approach for this type of photography, of finding out a couple of things:
Is there a dipper nearby (yes)
Is there a photogenic looking stone in the water with bird poo on it (yes)
Sit and wait, hoping it lands on that stone. (no)
It lands a little lower down and I’m willing it to pop onto the photogenic rock im focussed on. It doesn’t and flies back to the nesting site.
Onwards up the beck, the next spot is by the popular waterfall. There is a Dipper, dipping away on a rock, as I approach. Its not particularly active, just doing what dippers do when not feeding, spending a few minutes on a stone by the pool edge. I was able to get a couple of photo’s of it and watch it a short while before it flew downstream to presumably collect food. There are also a couple of grey wagtails here too but they are less approachable.
Having a scratch.
One of the grey wagtails at the lip of the waterfall.
I precariously sit in a spot at the top of the waterfall, one wrong move and I’ll have very wet feet. The dippers do sit here before flying to find food, as do the grey wagtails, so it’s a pretty good spot to photograph them.
Sat in the overhanging tree, calling to its mate.
It does take quite a while before one pops up and sits there for five mins, very enjoyable and distance to the rock walls of the watefalls cauldron, gives a lovely dark background to the dipper. It’s soon joined by a grey wagtail, which is calling out to its mate. I stay around another thirty mins before the lure of breakfast and a cup of tea brings the visit to an end.
At the lip of the waterfal
Thanks for reading!