Sadly, no Dippers, but a couple of nice Cornish locations.

Sunday 23^rd August 2026.

Idless Wood, nr Truro:

The very tall Scotts Pine trees within Idless Woods.

After a cracking local pub meal and a few nice beers, we all went to bed early last night for the long trip home, but the plan was to hopefully find a Dipper at two fairly reliable sites; Idless Wood near Truro and if that failed, then the village of Lostwitheal by the River Fowey where the guys saw one seven years ago.

The Firecrest by the car park.

Another lovely day with bright sunshine and very little wind to first try Idless Wood where we parked up and took the lower path to find the river. A Firecrest was heard and then seen calling in the trees close to the car park and it didn’t take long to find the bird of which at times, it was quite showy. Both Goldcrest and Coal Tit was abundant within the woodland and within the car park, a Siskin was heard flying over.

Above, a showy Clouded Yellow butterfly and below, a Red Admiral within the woodland.

Above, a Meadow Brown butterfly was sunning itself by the footpath.

Sadly, the water level was very low, and what should have been a river was now more like a stream. After walking about a mile and seeing that it was not getting any deeper or wider, we turned back to the car and decided to try the River Fowey instead. Even so, it was a lovely wood, with good views of several tits, including a Marsh Tit. We also saw a couple of Spotted Flycatchers using bare branches to catch passing flies. A Bullfinch, Nuthatch and Treecreeper were all heard but did not appear, and a flock of about seven Goldfinches flew overhead.

One of the two Spotted Flycatchers high up in the trees by the footpath.

Butterflies were abundant too, with Meadow Brown, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Gatekeeper and best of all, a very showy Clouded Yellow that perched nicely for us in the sunshine. The only sad thing within this lovely wood was the amount of dog poo bags just dumped in piles in certain areas along the footpath. Maybe it is in protest of the new parking charges here?

The River Fowey, Lostwithiel:

Sadly, again, no sign whatsoever of any Dippers here and most likely due to the many people in the river itself! We took a walk along the river to see if we could locate one but there was no sign at all, and again, the water level was very low and all we could find was a few Mallards resting on the shoreline and a Common Buzzard soaring very high in the distance. Good numbers of Small White butterflies were by the river along with a Red Admiral passing through and even a Clouded Yellow flew over us too while we ate some lunch from a nearby Co-operative. A male Common Darter dragonfly was over the river but sadly, very little else and so we made the long journey back home, reflecting over a very entertaining weekend.