Baltimore and the 100th ESA meeting

After returning back to Ottawa (from Colorado) on August 2nd, I spent most of my days preparing for my presentation at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) centennial meeting in Baltimore (August 9th to 14th).  My labmates and I departed for Baltimore on the morning of the 9th, drove more than eight hours, and arrived at Baltimore just before midnight; and my presentation took place in the following afternoon.

With ESA being the largest ecological society in the world, there was an incredible number of ecologists present, as well as numerous sessions taking place at the Baltimore Convention Center.  Overall, I thought my own presentation went well, and I enjoyed most of the presentations that I attended.  Unfortunately, I was unable to tour Baltimore as much as I would have liked.  Here are some of the photos I took when I was not busy inside the convention center speed-walking from one session to another.

The convention center lobby.  This place is completely packed in the morning, during lunchtime, and at the end of the day.  I snapped this photo when I took a break between sessions.

Bird-watching before Ottawa's first 2013 winterstorm

Before heavy snow started to fall yesterday afternoon, I went out to Mooney's Bay Park, a 45-minute walk from where I now live, to do some bird-watching.

With the city in the background, this scenery reminds me of being in Vancouver.

Day trip to North and West Vancouver

Today, my family and some family friends went to North Vancouver to do some sight-seeing.

Our first stop was the Capilano Salmon Hatchery. We saw a lot of salmons trying to swimming upstream to get to their destinations. Definitely a group of species that deserves to be admired and protected.

My mother said the "fall" is quite loud. I said Niagara Falls is definitely a thousand times louder than this.

Mist over the Capilano River. The mist added a sense of mystique to the river.