What would Saskatoon summer be like without the pelicans on the river. Usually they hang out around the weir or the sandbar island just above the weir. But they also cruise other parts of the river. Walking to work the other day I came across several of them a bit further downstream. Usually they are quite skittish and will swim away from the shore if they see people. But these ones seemed unconcerned about my presence. I'm not sure what they were up to since they weren't feeding. They just seemed to be paddling back and forth. One of them had the "horn" on its bill that they get during breeding season. Apparently both males and females get this horn so maybe the other one was a juvenile.
This last one was taken looking down from the railway bridge. The river is running high and fast as you can see from the stirred up silt.
These are
American White Pelicans. They seem classier than the scruffy brown pelicans that are common further south like in Florida and Baja.
I only had the little camera without much of a telephoto, but they were fairly cooperative, and with lots of resolution I could crop to zoom in a bit more. They are a bit of a challenge to photograph in the sun because their bright white feathers are hard to expose properly.
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