{"id":391,"date":"2012-03-31T20:48:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T20:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/?p=391"},"modified":"2020-04-04T09:26:33","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T09:26:33","slug":"the-mersey-dippers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/?p=391","title":{"rendered":"The Mersey Dippers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"600\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"600\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"Dipper on the River Mersey\" src=\"http:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/DSC_9952_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"Dipper on the River Mersey\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Dipper on the River Mersey downstream from Cheadle Bridge, Manchester <\/em><\/p>\n<p>As recently as 30 years ago the Mersey was considered to be the most polluted river in Europe. In 1983 the then Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Heseltine stated<em>\u00a0 \u201c\u2026the river is an affront to the standards a civilised society should demand of its environment. Untreated sewage, pollutants, noxious discharges all contribute to water conditions and environmental standards that are perhaps the single most deplorable feature of this critical part of England.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n<p>The efforts that have been made to clean the river up have been remarkable (<a href=\"http:\/\/merseybasin.org.uk\/archive\/assets\/176\/original\/Who_Saved_the_Mersey.pdf\">more info<\/a>). The Spring 2011 return of Dippers for the first time since the Industrial Revolution is a clear sign of the improving water quality. Sadly although there\u2019s been a huge biological improvement in the water quality there\u2019s still far too many people dumping rubbish along the river bank only for it be carried away and washed up further downstream.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"600\">\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"Dipper\" src=\"http:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/DSC_9922_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"Dipper\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"600\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"600\">\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"Dipper on old tyre\" src=\"http:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/DSC_9942_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"Dipper on old tyre\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\nGood to see how adaptable nature can be. Makes a change from balancing on the edge of a rock surrounded by a babbling brook.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"600\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"600\">\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; padding-top: 0px; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"Dipper\" src=\"http:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/DSC_9926_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"Dipper\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" border=\"0\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" width=\"600\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; margin: 0px auto; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"Dipper, shopping trolley and other debris\" src=\"http:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/DSC_9947_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"Dipper, shopping trolley and other debris\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" border=\"0\" \/><br \/>\nNot your average desirable residence !<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.benhallphoto.com\/bwpa-2011\/\">One for the traditionalist (even though its been copied and recreated by many aspiring photographers Ben Hall\u2019s photo is still superb)<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; \u00a0 Dipper on the River Mersey downstream from Cheadle Bridge, Manchester As recently as 30 years ago the Mersey was considered to be the most polluted river in Europe. In 1983 the then Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Heseltine stated\u00a0 \u201c\u2026the river <span class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"more-link btn btn-transparent\" href=\"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/?p=391\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[130,132,69,133,131],"class_list":["post-391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","tag-dipper","tag-old-tyre","tag-river-mersey","tag-rubbish","tag-shopping-trolley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=391"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6363,"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391\/revisions\/6363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalbornblogger.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}