Record Early Pelican Sighting!!

It seems the pelicans arrived very early.  On March 20th they were spotted at the Sports and Leisure Show!  Luckily a pelican friendly dog called Petey, a Havanese, alerted his owner, Claire Paulson, to this astonishing early arrival:

Now that the weather is warming up, maybe the pelicans will feel they can stop hanging around indoors and get out on the water!  Thanks to Claire Paulson for the excellent photograph!

Hydro Project Stalls

Good news, pelicanistas!

It seems that cooler heads have prevailed and the hydro project may not happen at all.  Which means the surfer dudes are going to have to go surfing in, like, an ocean, eh.  And the whitewater folks are going to have to take their boats to the whitewater, rather than commanding the whitewater to come to them. 

Check out the Star Phoenix story.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/travel/Weir+hydro+study+hold/4433822/story.html


So we will be able to enjoy the peaceful scene down at the weir for some time to come.  Maybe for the forseeable future!

Pelican Bytes

Fact: Urban stormwater washes a variety of effluents into the river after every storm, contaminants like gasoline, bacteria like e coli, dog and other animal feces, as well as a range of other pollutants. The City of Saskatoon does nothing to prevent or treat urban stormwater.

Question:  So, if the waterpark is going to be for kids on tubes as well as kayakers, how are we going to ensure that the water is safe?  Is it going to be tested after each storm?  (Last summer, that would have been almost daily!)  Who is going to pay for these tests?

Pelican Byte:   Why not spend 15 million on ways to keep those effluents OUT of our river, rather than making a concrete watercourse as a lure that will encourage our kids to swim in it?

Try to imagine how the whitewater course will look most of the time

That is, empty. Here is a youtube video of the Cardiff International Whitewater course as it fills up.  When it is empty, it is a concrete channel.  So that is the view we will have in Saskatoon when the course isn't running.  And when will that be?  At certain times every day when it is not in use. So, for some hours daily. And overnight, no doubt.  And, um, well, then there is winter, and the cold months in spring and fall.  So won't that be a grand view, when you go down to the weir to look at the river?  An empty course, sometimes littered with brightly coloured blocks, which are used like articifical "rocks" to change the current pattern for the entertainment of the kayakers. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxQniY0sEro

The illustrations shown to us by Saskatoon Light and Power are always of the course running.  Where are the illustrations of how it will look most of the time, that's what we at Pelican Watch would like to know?

On a brighter note, we have only two months and change before the pelicans return!  Until then, keep warm on your walks by the river....