Heading Upstream

On a recent trip to Yellowstone National Park, I visited the Le Hardy Rapids, to find a group of about 20 harlequin ducks. They played and chased each other around in the rapidly moving water. This female seemed to prefer to go upstream against the current with a combination of swimming and flying. Although it seemed a Herculean effort, she repeated the to and fro journey many times as I photographed her, sometimes alone, and sometimes with an accompanying male.