Canada: Land of Rushing Waters

The snowmelt is massive here in southeast British Columbia this spring, and creeks and waterfalls have been transformed into torrents. Too deep and too fast for dippers, most of them, but a sharp-eyed Alison spotted a couple of even better rushing-water denizens.

This and another, equally snazzy drake Harlequin Duck were sheltering in the lee of a small gravel bar, which they shared with a female-plumaged Common Merganser. We looked in vain for hen harlequins, but with all those duck-sized rocks in the background, they could have been there and simply gone unnoticed; or, and this our pious hope, maybe they’re off on eggs in the huge trees on the mountainside.