The recently arrived Harlequin Duck seems to have now left Kokanee Creek. She will be heading to the Coast. Such a migration is a little odd: Other migrating ducks travel north and south; Harlequins travel east and west.
Why did this harlequin female deserve one more posting before she left? Because I got shots of her hunting underwater. I have only managed to do this with one other bird: a dipper. As that dipper posting showed, the dipper flies underwater using its wings, for unlike a duck, it doesn’t have webbed feet to propel it. As the second picture below shows, the harlequin holds its wings against its body and propels itself with its webbed feet.
The harlequin is seen searching the rocky bottom of the stream immediately after diving.
The harlequin then turns sideways and reveals that it is propelling itself with its feet, not its wings.
She surfaces and is soon off to the Coast.
oh Alistair, this is visual poetry!
What a great capture and so clear! Thank you.
I’ll say hi, if I see her at Reiffel this Christmas!
I adore the bubble sitting like a crown on the harlequin’s head. The whole image is beauty with the water breaking around the duck.