(Note: There are a lot of videos on this post. Some of them are longer. We down size and reduce the bit rate, but it might still take a bit to load some of them.)

When John downloaded the bird list to identify a duck, he ran across the Harlequin Duck. These little ducks are beautiful with bold patterns and colors. Kate thought to look up where they are found in Yellowstone. It turns out that they are found just a few miles from Fishing Bridge at LeHardy Rapids.

We went to LeHardy Rapids expecting to find nothing. When we walked down to the viewing platform, there were five Harlequin ducks that appeared to be frolicking in the rapids with about 20 people taking pictures.

The ducks bob in the current behind rocks or sit on a rock to rest. When they are ready to hunt for food, they swim into the current, dive for food, and pop back up down stream. After about two dives, they perform the turbo duck maneuver to get back upstream. The turbo duck maneuver seems to be a combination of swimming and flying along the surface of the water. It is quite adorable.

Gathering energy to ride the rapids and dive for food.

The ducks seem pretty small; the rapids are huge next to them. Sometimes, you can only see a little black and white head poking above the waves between dives.

And when it is time to go back upstream, turbo duck powers ACTIVATE!

And again!

Time to recharge the turbo duck powers.

While John was photographing the ducks, an American Dipper showed up. When he first saw it, he thought it was suicidal. It jumped in the water, thrashed around a little, and vanished. After it came out of the water and landed on the rock with a worm, he realized that it must be an American Dipper. Kate looked them up and learned that they jump in the water, run along the bottom, and pick up invertebrates (e.g., worms) to eat. The American Dipper is not much to look at standing there, but it is a wonder to behold in action.

At the LeHardy Rapids parking lot, a ranger had fox, coyote, and wolf furs for people to touch. He mentioned that a fox was hanging around Fishing Bridge. Do you want to guess what Kate saw leaving the Fishing Bridge gas station? If you guessed coyote, you are completely wrong.

Unfortunately, they caught it begging for food. This means that a tourist or employee has probably been feeding it. If it gets aggressive towards people before the rangers can reeducate and relocate it, they will have to euthanize it. This is the problem with people and wild animals. People are dumb and cannot follow simple rules.