Harlequin in flight.

Most (all?) of the Harlequin shots I've seen here at NPN have been taken on the coast, where they winter. This was taken in summer habitat, in the mountains. (On the Livingstone River, SW of Calgary. Just yards from where my recent post in EHK was taken.)

I don't know much about Harlequins, but I do know one important thing that let me get some shots of them. I was not prepared to stalk birds when we went to Livingstone Falls. I had no blind, and I was not dressed for crawling around on my belly. So I knew I'd be lucky to get any shots at all before they flew away. But the one thing I know about Harlequins is that they always try to escape downstream. So to get closer to them, I chose to approach from downstream.

As you can see, they will still fly away... Though of the two males and one female I saw, this guy flew away first, but the other two hung around long enough to let me get some shots of them.

Sensia 100, Sigma 50-500.

-Paul