dryfly

Some recording stations in the Castle and Waterton drainages have rec'd 150 to 200 mm in past three days...somewhat isolated occurrences. Most places from Leth to the BC and MT borders have rec'd 60 to 100 mm so far--with a lot expected today as LF and beed referred to. Overall the rain is great, but undoubtedly there will be some "issues" before it is over. Gettin' time to move the sheep to high ground. Snowing above about 1800 meters. Warm weather next week would not be good. Needs to stay cool for a while to ease the high-elev melt. 1995? I don't think so ... but my gift of prophesy is not swell.

So far the rain is great in SW Alberta ranging from about 20 to 50 mm -- so far. Hope it is not 1995 revisited as there is a heavy rainfall warning now in place for the SW--and still some heavy snow pack over 1800 meters. Heavy rain on snow is not a good mix. The difference between now and 1995 is that is is cold this time. Then it was high snow, high temps and high rains. Warnings Crowsnest Pass - Pincher Creek - Waterton lakes nat. Park 4:17 AM MDT Friday 23 May 2008 Rainfall warning for Crowsnest Pass - Pincher Creek - Waterton lakes nat. Park continued. Heavy rainfall is occurring in southwestern Alberta. A upper low pressure system in Wyoming is spreading moisture into southern Alberta. The moisture combined with upslope flow in southwestern Alberta is leading to heavy rainfall. Pincher Creek area has seen 45 millimetres since noon Thursday and is expected to see an additional 30 to 40 illimetres today. Another impulse of moisture is forecast to move into southern Alberta this evening with a possible 50 to 70 millimetres of rain by Saturday evening. Total rainfall amounts by Saturday evening are expected to reach 140 millimetres. Plus some snow. :lol: AND THE DAYS START GETTING SHORTER IN 4 WEEKS!! (Just for Ms. Lynn!) Taken at 6:30 today just north of Lundbreck!

If that is what has to be done to preserve genetic purity, the so be it. Less damaging than the bombs once proposed by Parks Canada, eh? What I find more than mildly amusing is that rotenone is a pesticide, albeit 'natural' and so approved by the "organic" crowd. It is still a lethal toxin and yet in this case it is considered an appropriate use. Sure, whatever. And yet our society is all pissed off with a myriad of other harmful toxins certainly no more dangerous. Society is falling all over itself to ban evil pesticides in our cities and yet allows the use of a pesticide in a pristine mountain lake. Go figure, eh? Rotenone MSDS It is a funny world with many faces ... at least two faces for sure.

Well done by both tyers. Thanks to the secret tyers.

This is a reminder that there will be a "benchmark" fishing weekend at Police Lake this upcoming weekend from May 9 to May 11. You are invited to attend all weekend or whenever you can on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Free breakfast on Sunday morning to those who participate in the test fishing! Please RSVP here if you plan to attend. Background Effective April 1, 2008, Police Outpost Lake is governed by new regulations. Open Apr. 1 to Oct. 31 Trout limit 1 over 50 cm Bait Ban Nov. 1 to Mar 31 – CLOSED What and why There will be a test fishing weekend on May 9, 10 and 11, 2008. The purpose will be to establish a baseline of fish size to compare with fish size in future years. Participants will be asked to keep record sheets that ask for 1)number of hours fished 2) number of fish caught 3) length of fish caught and 4) method used. These data will be invaluable in tracking the success of Police Lake under the new regulations. What you will do If you plan to attend, download this record keeping sheet, print a couple of copies and keep track of the fish you catch. PLEASE BRING A TAPE MEASURE as we want accurate measurements. Utmost care is to be taken when handling, measuring and releasing fish. If you show up on Friday, and no one "official" is in attendance, just go ahead and start fishing and record the fish you catch as noted on the record sheet. All participants are to fish according to the current regulations for this lake and for the province. See here. When and where ... this upcoming weekend from May 9 to May 11. This is a weekend event and you can arrive any time on Friday afternoon or on Saturday. There is a campground at this provincial park so you can tent or trailer at the campground. Download the Police Lake campground brochure with maps and contact numbers. RSVP We need to know how many plan to attend so food can be procured for the Sunday morning breakfast! Please RSVP to Allan Caldwell. caldwa AT gmail.com FOR MORE INFORMATION Please contact Allan Caldwell at 381-1619 or caldwa AT gmail.com Please do not call me or write to me as I will be in hiding this week. Thanks. Hope to see you there. Clive ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clive Schaupmeyer, Secretary Oldman River Chapter TU

Thanks for your kind comments. I enjoy taking bird pictures. Posted some more in another thread. Cheers! Clive

Spent some time in the marsh today, including 3 hours in my blind. Turned out well ... I am pleased. Thanks for looking. Cheers! Clive Shovellers...really fun to watch...sort of goofy little ducks...dozens on the ponds.. Canvasback female Cinnamon teal Guy type mallard Snow goose...not sure why it is hanging around here ... been here about one week...not seen it fly so there may be an issue there...(no tar sands so it may have hit a wire...or maybe it is just confused ) The goslings started hatching a few days ago...I am thinking there are two crops this year...some females sat early and many didn't start until mid April so they will be hatching in a week or two. (28 to 32-day incubation.) Clutches have 3 to 5 young ones...the snow may have thinned a few eggs as there should be about 4 to 7 goslings per family.

"what's an eco-weenie? " rickr hit it on the head. Bingo. It's all about perspective. I am an "earth raper" because I drive an 8 cylinder truck (on occasion), so an eco weenie is anyone with a 4-cylinder car and who complains about my truck. And to a guy who rides a bike everywhere the 4-cylinder guy is an "earth rapist" and the cyclist is the eco con weenie. I see eco weenies as anyone who thinks when it comes to the environment they have SDS and everyone else is a bastard. I always wondered what an "environmentalist" is. I see it in "letters to the editor" all of the time. It is a pompous statement about to one's self appointed status. I know a local self-anointed "environmentalist" who is thinks Al Gore is a God..just like Al Gore thinks he is a God. And this local environmentalist lives with her hubby in two homes totaling about 5,000 square feet. Right! (And Al gore lives in a 10,000 sq ft mansion.) She accuses me of being an "earth rapist," but she and her hubby leave more of a footprint as Blondie and I. She has SDS big time. Castuserraticus.. yeah tower lines are a biggie. Buildings and windows THE biggest; cats are huge; and road kills also huge. Never hear about these...well we see something about buildings now and then. Based on the highly scientific survey adc and I took yesterday there were at LEAST as many road killed birds on Alberta's highways yesterday (alone) as died in this tar sands event. We saw 3 fresh dead birds (seagulls all) in about 100 km of paved road...there are 20K of paved roads in AB....that's at least 600 road kill birds on AB's highways on ONE day. What is to be done about this slaughter!?!?! :P Oh the shame! blah blah blah. Who in this thread said something about fly fishermen should be a tad careful in what they say? Let's say C&R anglers release 50,000 rainbows and browns on the Bow River annually. Based on the "science," they kill at least 1,000 trout annually!! (it is probably more.) We ALL have a footprint. It is our duty (and that of Suncor) to minimize that impact within reason. None of us like any unwanted wildlife deaths, but they are a reality of life. Y'all have a swell weekend. I am going to take pictures this afternoon..nice sunny day here.

Thanks all. The grebe eyes are incredible. Harps... can you tell? Is that a brook stickleback? It should be a brook SB because of the location, but I am not sure. Jeff .. they've been around here before but there are several on 'my' pond this year. one4adventure ... I use a Sony A700. This grebe was shot with a 17-year-old 500-mm Minolta AF mirror lens. A great lens for sunny days. Some more from this week... the pelican was with the 100-300 APO Minolta. The goose and YHBB with the mirror.

Eared grebe with stickleback .. took about 200 grebe shots on Monday. A few nice ones.

sun .. all good points. Regarding my perception that oil companies are screwing us .. it is VERY easy perception to have. I am filling up with buck twenty petrol while I am listening to the radio telling me about the huge oil company profits. It is not hard to feel you are being gouged. The rest of this hype about the tars sands dead birds was, is and will be blown way out of proportion. It is very sad, but it is minuscule in the big scheme of things. The eco weenies are quick to find fault with anything to do with conventional energy and turn a blind eye to the issues alternate sources.

Thanks rickr. Also thanks to Jeffro for his first-hand insights.

rickr... I can never do that. Har har. I don't drink, BUT would love to chat some day -- on a river somewhere maybe. I think "big oil" is basically "bad" and we all are getting royally screwed by them all of the time. Like right now with the obscene gas prices while THEY make huge multi-billion-dollar profits. Royal Dutch Shell made a mere $9 billion in the first quarter. And I am paying for that bullshit. We all are except a lot of folks make BIG bucks in the patch--well above other industries. So "they" pay at the pumps, but they also get huge salaries. But in this instance, it is grossly unfair to peg the "tar sands" as bad while many sectors of society are all major contributors to (in this case) bird deaths. This case is "acute" and visible. The millions of bird deaths from many other causes is spread around and mostly hidden. We are all implicated indirectly or directly in bird deaths. Whatever the actual (ridiculously high) figure is on bird morts from cats does not matter. Cats kill hundreds of millions of birds annually in North America. But it is not seen, it is spread out and basically ignored. The rev's cat from three houses down skulks around the neighborhood all day long lurking in the bushes--it ain't digging worms. But no one says a thing about these vermin "invasive" pets. ("But it is not MY cat!" Yeah sure honey.) rickr, you are bang on ... this MOST unfortunate event is instantly pegged by eco weenies as "big bad oil" and you are spot on when you say, "The company screwed up, hopefully they will fix it and move on." Yeah, fix it and do everything possible to make sure it does not happen again-- too often anyway.

THIS IS INDEED UNFORTUNATE, but must be put in perspective. See the chart. BIG killers of birds include windows, high tension wires, pesticides, communications towers and cats. Yes, Muffy, and her kin eat an estimated 500,000,000 dickie birds in North America annually--and even if the estimates are out by 100 percent. The fact is that cats eat a LOT of birds! And of course wind turbines kill birds too. (Yes, those darlings of the eco weenies everywhere... !#$!% turbines!) So while Suzukians are driving their hybrid cars to eco meetings, owning pussy cats and and buying green-friendly (NOT!! ) wind power THEY too are killing birds. Bastards eh, just like you and me and those bad-ass tar sands sonsabitches. It is ALL about perspective. I don't like the bird deaths any more than anyone else here, but it is all about reality of daily life. We all interact in the environment that sometimes (always actually) harms critters. Facts of life. We can hope this event will forces changes in how they operate up there. Now where's my gun? ... there's a cat on the front lawn eating a robin!! You can read about pussy here ... There would be an estimated 500,000 (or well more) domesticated and ferral cats in Alberta that would kill hundred of thousands of birds annually...figures suggest even a few million.

No pickerel in those lakes ... whitefish, pike and walleye. Badger is about (what?) 75 minutes SE of YYC .... near Lomond. Some pike pigs in there. You can fish close to the western shore so a tube would be okay BUT beware of the wind on all of our southern reservoirs.

Lynn .. welcome home. Pretty funny. I sposed you missed the ice age last week eh Lynn?! Harps, you got the wrong item. This is an item SPECIFICALLY about the "North Pole" and ice melting. They showed penguins on an ice flow with voice over talking about melting ice in the "NORTH POLE." It is media BS at its very worst...well, just more of the same media BS hype we are used to.

Hilarious Terry! Good to see you this weekend. Clive

Ever wonder if the media screws with your brain when reporting on GW? Check this news clip out ... wait to 47 seconds. If NBC has not withdrawn it yet you will see PENGUINS!! Yes penguins in the Arctic. It HAS to be true! It is in the media. Rock on media ... and keep up the factual reporting work! :P :P

bh is 20 minutes from Elkwater. That can't be much of a problem. Probably depends on where you are staying, eh? But BH is closer or as close as Reesor with its reportedly small rainbows and suckers.

Thanks to the Calgary crew that came down ... much appreciated. Guito and the conclave committee bust their tails pulling this off. Thanks to all! Would been nice to see a few more at the clave, but those that attended had a great time and lots was learned. It was fun. I may even start tying my own leaders and may have to consider a Spey rod. I could do that. The dinner was a full house with some 180 to 190 in attendance. The final $$ tally won't be in for a few days, but generally the auction went well. A few prints went for a song, but some went very well and the trips were well supported. Then there was the silent auction and a gajillion raffle items -- none of which I won. BTW .. the Stream Watch raffle was drawn...no winners from this message board. (Including me.) We made over $4K on the Stream Watch raffle! Thanks to everyone who helped!!!

Here's how to do pike more or less boneless.

Bump .. C'mon...just cuz the Kipper faded in the end. :lol: $200 anyone? Go Canes Go!!

adc uses this one....

Noted. Thanks rusty.

Bump. You YYCers really down on the Flames now that they are about to burn to San Jose, eh? Someone must wanna signed goalie stick for fifty bucks. If we erase Kipper's autograph maybe we can get more.