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The Living World

Getting up close and personal with wild nature in Britain and beyond.

Intimate encounters and extraordinary observations of wild nature in Britain and beyond.

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Living World: River Dippers

29/05/2016

River Dippers

BBC Radio 4 - Living World, River Dippers

Lionel Kelleway is in search of dippers. Recorded in 2002.

Chris Packham relives programmes from the Living World archives. In this programme recorded in 2002, Lionel Kelleway is in search of dippers.

Chris Packham relives programmes from The Living World archives.

In this programme recorded in 1995, Lionel Kelleway heads over to Wales near the town of Llanthony in search of dippers, a songbird uniquely adapted to an aquatic way of life. Joining Lionel as he looks out for this plump-little-stub-tailed-bird, bobbing up and down in the cascading water is otter expert Geoff Lyles and Stephanie Tyler from the RSPB. 

Dippers are slowly recolonising some once polluted rivers, but it is a complex story for the poetically named water ouzel. In some rivers dipper numbers are thought to be declining due to changes in water quality or exposure to 'more modern' pollutants such as flame retardants or excess nutrient run off. 

Producer Andrew Dawes.

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