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Photographer: Rich Pfingsten
Taken: March 23, 2009
Caption: Perpetual Summer informational sign on opposite side of marker sign
Additional Description: Ignore the calendar: this stretch of river creates its own season. In subzero weather summer-green grasses sway in the current, algae colonize pebbles, and waterfowl sometimes appear at the riverbend.

The sorcery is geothermal. Discharge from Mammoth Hot Springs percolates underground and enters the Gardner River upstream. In the tropical microclimate of plants and algae, insects feast and swarm near the surface, attracting ducks and dippers. Brown trout spawn here in December.

Along rivers throughout the park, look for breaks in winter's pattern - islands of life in the ice-locked stillness.

Inset photo caption - Here the dipper, or water ouzel, can be seen year-round. Dippers depend on open water, they feed on larvae and small fish by walking upstream underwater, using their wings for stability. Stay quiet and still, and dippers will remain nearby.
Submitted: February 27, 2011, by Rich Pfingsten of Forest Hill, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p145795
File Size: 2.240 Megabytes

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