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A dip too far

Some dippers have nested in the sluices of a dam on Lake Vrynwy. But what will happen when the chicks fledge and have to fly through the sluice? There are only two chicks in the nest now – a third seems to have been lost over the weekend. But after some searching, it appears that the chick survived its journey through the sluice and was being fed by the adults on the riverbank. The second chick then made the leap into the torrent and was swept downriver. All it has to do was clamber out of the water on to a rock, but it kept on paddling and swimming and becoming more exhausted. Springwatch has a policy of non-interference, but eventually the cameraman's assistant was sent to help it as this was just plain bad luck not a natural process. The chick was picked out of the water and put up on to high ground, but it did not survive.

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