The less traveled road

I got my full workout this week just by going to work. I've walked 10+ miles in four days over not the best terrain. I've bled (not loving the massive rose thorn that was completely pushed into my pointer finger on my dominant hand), been bruised, battered, and I am very happy it's the weekend.

Today was supposed to be a solo day, but I'm thankful I had my birdman co-worker with me. The day started off with clearing brush, tree parts, and logs from a woods road (see above pic) that would eventually lead us to the powerline that we were working on. We helped navigate our vehicles past fallen trees in spots where we couldn't move the fallen trees. I lead the charge in my girly suv. I quickly regretted the decision to drive both our cars when I spotted a mucky and watery span in the road. I was 100% sure I'd immediately get stuck or slid into the woods. Surprisingly, I made my way past it with some minor sliding and skidding. Alas, there was a zillion more deep puddles and as I squealed along I sort of felt like I was in a suv commercial. Except, I really didn't mean to be there and was driving a mostly inappropriate vehicle. I had to go fast enough to make it across the puddles, but slow enough to not bottom out or go horribly off-course. We arrived at the powerline and started to gather up our field gear. I quickly realized I couldn't find my cellphone. Birdman called my phone and we didn't hear it ring. It must have fallen out of my pocket when I was brushclearing on the road. We decided to both drive back and I decided that I would leave my car near the beginning of road to avoid having to drive that crazy drive twice. Sure enough the phone was near the closest brush clearing and was inches from being run over on the initial drive down. Phew! I will say that birdman's more capable subura gave a much smoother and assured ride. If we end up doing a lot more work in this area, I may just have to bite the bullet and drive one of the company's mega suvs out there. Aside from the morning's initial hiccups, the day was enjoyable. The area we were in was remote and full of cool rare hawks and woodpeckers. We also enjoyed the different plants and I even found a possible turtle eggshell and owl feather.

We even found this old VW bug way out in the powerline miles upon miles from the nearest road. Pretty soon that punchbuggy will go completely back to nature.

Banzai!

I had my first all day field outing in what feels like a month. First stop was urban NJ checking on some landscaped habitat plantings. I had been told the plantings were much smaller in area and the species didn't match the plan. That indeed was the case. Plus out of 20 areas, only 15 were actually constructed. I had to mark down what species were planted and what were missing. To add to the confusion, some exotic species not in the kartek database were planted. Thankfully the landscapers were kind enough to leave behind some tags to help in the identification. I did have one mystery plant that had been eaten so much it was like a banzai tree.

Also, if I had a dollar for ever goose dropping I saw, I'd be a billionaire. To "scare" the geese, they installed cardboard cuouts of dogs all around the landscaped areas. I don't think they are particularly effective and actually may scare away the target heron species we are trying to attract.

I got to see the wetland mitigation that was conducted that made the project possible. Again, the metallic ribbons meant to deter the birds from eating the new plants didn't seem very effective. But I hope it all works out.

Here's a typical vista for most of my day. Nature, garbage, and quiet in the foreground with urban badness in the background.

The last stop of the day was met with a series of setbacks. First the rude realization that my soil auger was gone! I had not used it in the morning so then I racked my brain for the last site I had used it. Hours passed and I think I figured it out. In the meantime, I had spent over an hour on the wrong site (wrong side of the road damn it!). Things were not matching the map and I couldn't figure out the problem. I felt defeat again and decided to take a short drive. I jumped out and it still wasn't right, but on a whim I checked across the street and jackpot! It was the right site! Hoorary and phew!! I got done early and jetted to the site where I thought I had left the auger. Problem is, that 99% of my lost soil auger incidents have been me leaning the auger against the car and then driving off without it. It had been over a week and I figured someone probably picked up the soil auger off the road. No luck at finding it, but at least I have a backup auger at the office.