The icy stream runs fast and wide with snowmelt, its white water surface sparkling in the sunlight.
Prismatic spray rises from the rapids.
Into this maelstrom flies an American dipper, a stub-tailed bird about the size of a starling. The dipper alights momentarily on a mid-stream boulder, then dives into the torrent. After 15 seconds on the surging stream bottom, the bird bobs like a cork to the surface, precisely where it entered the water, and returns to the boulder. A juicy insect larva dangles from its bill. Just another dinner in dipper land.