To spend perhaps 20 and more years of your life in the study of a subject which will help to increase to some degree the common pool of knowledge on one small creature, not for academic accolade or advancement, but simply to pass on information, painstakingly acquired, is a worthy commitment. The person concerned is not a game warden or game keeper, not a professional naturalist. He did his researches while working in a bank.
This rather sententious observation comes after watching, from the comfort of a riverside sitting room, two smallish birds apparently building a nest in a hole on a river bank. This led to reaching out for a splendid book on that bird it is The Irish Dipper by Kenneth W. Perry. It is written by him, of course, but also designed by him, and the artwork and numerous illustrations are by the author. You all know the dipper, though some people in the west, he tells us, call it "the wee water hen". It is a dark bird with a white breast, and in Ireland a slight chestnut bib.
You may not know it by name, hut you will have seen it standing on a rock in a river and, all the time, bobbing, doing a sort of knees bend, its tail usually up in the air like a wren's. And every now and then the bird plunges its head into the water, inspecting, hunting, no doubt, and often dives in completely. We know from underwater photography and sometimes from observation in clear water, that it swims below the surface after its prey or, more remarkably, walks on the bed of the river in search of its prey, which includes caddis fly larvae and nymphs of many other flies. All listed here. An no fish, or little fish one researcher did find that stickle backs were part of the diet.
The two birds observed at the opening of this piece, seemed to be carrying weed or moss to a site. The author says that wet moss is used as a foundation and the rest of the interior is dried moss. The nest is domed and sturdy. A favourite place for building is under bridges or in culverts beneath roads. He has photographed many, including most perilous sites.
Thus, one perched on a metal tie on the face of a bridge.
Many, many photographs of the birds in settings of foaming, spraying waters. He has covered so many rivers and streams, north, south, east and west. It is about 140 pages, A4 size, strongly bound and clearly set out. It was published in 1986, privately. This copy was probably bought in Fred Hanna's of Nassau Street, Dublin.
In the year of publication, a note on the back cover tells us that the author was then Assistant Manager at a branch of the Bank of Ireland in Derry.