I've never photographed a Dipper of any sort before, anywhere. What brilliant little birds they are. They're superb, and I've not got a lot else to say about them. This particular bird was on a smallish stream near Thetford in Norfolk, and has been the subject of my thinking for quite a while- I finally made the trip today and I'm very glad I did. Tricky conditions, very dark for the most part, but a supremely confiding subject made it as easy as it was going to get under the trees. Shutter speed was hard to come by - most photos taken below 1/400s, and that's with ISO of 1000. No complaints though! Tripod-mounted 800mm lens and both the 1D4 and 5D3 bodies (the latter at ISO 3200!), a 500mm f4 would have been handy - I find my thoughts leaning ever more towards this lens - the one I used to have. The beauty of the 800mm is the extra reach with no compromise in quality, however at f5.6 it is slow, and the extra focal length makes it that much easier to wobble. For the majority of situations you want as much focal length as you can get, but if you're prepared to pick and choose the super-close birds, 500mm is perfectly adequate and double the light and shutter speed would be hugely useful. Today the best I could hope for was a series of nice poses, rather than the action shots that would have been more interesting. Still, they're quite nice portraits! Best session of the year so far, wins all the prizes for Bird of the Year as far as I'm concerned. If you can get there, I recommend you go!