Here are some fun pelican photos by a visitor to our city, Linda Frank. When she was told that this area could become a white-water playground, she looked shocked and said, "I didn't think Saskatoon would be like that."
Well, we hope that Saskatoon won't be "like that" if we at Pelican Watch have anything to do with it!
A few weeks ago, a group of a dozen firemen-in-training were in the river, or on the cement apron by the weir, on the west side, doing some "feat of strength" test. They each took turns donning wetsuits, wading up to the weir and touching the wall through the torrent of water falling over it. The fireman doing the test was attached to a safety cable, which a couple of other fireman held on to, keeping him safe.
One of our members happened to be passing, and she called out to a fireman who was about to undress and get into his wetsuit. (Yes, it was distracting, she said.) She asked him where the pelicans were when the firemen arrived that morning.
"Good question," he said, looking around. He noticed there were no pelicans in the river at that point.
"I guess we scared them away," he said.
He thought they were on the island, maybe, when they first started the test. The pelicanista reporting this suspects that the pelicans were also in the river, as they usually are around ten in the morning. They like to stand around in the shallows, looking gorgeous.
So, if the pelicans leave when a few firemen get into the river, what will they do when a bunch of kayakers come careening their way? It's not hard to imagine, is it?
