5. Dancing, Dipping &…Diving. [a White throated Dipper in the Netherlands]

Past autumn a White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus cinclus) arrived in the Netherlands.
It’s a very rare visitor in our country and it attracted a large audience of photographers and twitchers.
I have never seen so many huge lenses pointed at one little bird.

To get a more personal shot I tried to descend to bird level.
Which was a bit scary since the sides of the concrete channel are steep and very slippery.
I kind of anchored myself with my foot in a crack of the concrete and hoped for the best.
Getting wet is one thing but my dive being photographed a 40 times and to be seen on the internet forever……no way…..
I had my fun with this little cooperative birdie and left satisfied and dry.

And then…..there was this cold winter day. The channel was covered with snow and it was freezing. I decided a dipper in the snow might be nice and I noticed some other photographers had had the same idea.
So we were lying there….in the snow when all of a sudden one of the men started gliding into the water……..
Just before he could glide to the bottom of the channel I threw away my camera, grabbed his hand and somehow got him out….
His pants were soaked but his 500mm was still dry, so we decided to continue our trip together and despite the rather weird first impression had a great day…

But my god…… some people do everything to get that perfect shot…! 😉