Wood Duck Family

I went for a walk this morning with my parents at Historic Smithville Park, including the Smith's Woods trail and the Floating Trail across Smithville Lake.  I took my camera and a long lens, just in case, and managed to spot a female Wood Duck in the lake with several ducklings, foraging among the (invasive) water plants.

Oceans on the road to Rio+20

I spent last week (June 20-24) at UN Headquarters in New York City, with my friends Robynne, Graeme, Daniela and Faye, for the 12th UN Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.

Experts and policy people talked about ocean issues to discuss at next year's "Rio+20" UN Conference on Sustainable Development, and also got the latest updates on just how badly our civilization's unsustainable practices and pollution are messing up the oceans and killing all the delicious creatures that live in them.

I took pictures and built a web site, while the rest of the team wrote bulletins and a summary report with analysis, all of which are also linked from the site for your reading pleasure.

Iguaçu Falls

Last Friday night, some friends invited me to go along with them to see Iguaçu Falls on Saturday morning.  Before, I had only ever gotten to see those falls in the distance out the window of a jet, so of course I jumped at the opportunity.

On Saturday morning, another acquaintance surprised us all by sneakily arranging a helicopter tour!  So my first good view of the falls was an aerial one.

Back on the ground and only slightly queasy from my first-ever time in a helicopter, I got a closer - much closer - look at some of the falls near the left end of the aerial view. And of course, I had to make a bit of a panorama with Hugin, as usual. :) 

Advancing Sustainable Hydropower

If you like hydropower, dams, waterfalls or Brazil... I built a web site about the International Hydropower Association's 2011 World Congress on Advancing Sustainable Hydropower last week (June 13-17) in Foz do Iguaçu, with pictures and stuff. 

My friends Soledad, Kate and Kate wrote a summary report of what went on at the conference, which you can also download from the site.