Groundhog day

The state is out verifying the wetland boundary we delineated eons ago at that big farm estate. Since a lot of time has passed, a bunch of our wetland flags are missing. They either got clobbered when the farmer mowed the fields or removed by others. I have a short list of suspects who might have removed the flags since I could see a large truck had ridden along the wetland boundary and now all the flags are missing. Coincidence, I think not.

So I'm back out there to find the old flags and replace them with shiny new ones and assist the surveyors in re-establishing the flags I can't find. Rain was predicted for most of the day so I was surprised when I got the game on phone call early this morning. Sure enough it rained intermittently all morning and the surveyors hunkered down in their truck because their equipment can't get wet. I got to head out there first since the surveyors first had to find some stake in the ground and wait for the rain to let up. Boring. A herd of deer ran across the field and the red tailed hawks were startled to see a human about. It's always nice to be the only person in a spot surrounded by wildlife.

I slapped on full rain gear and went on a mission to find the old flags and replace them with new ones. That took most of the day and the rain mostly stopped around noon. Good thing, because my maps were getting soaked and falling apart.

The half dirt/half gravel road quickly began to flood and the more dirt areas became mud pits. It was the most off roading I got to do with the RAV-4. Overall, the new tires worked well. It was more controlled chaos than uncontrolled madness. I did drive into a too deep muddy rut slightly off the road and had to back out. After that muddy ride, I decided to hoof it in the muddy spots. I really don't know how I'm going to get all that mud off my car. It's inside the door jambs too.

After the rain stopped, there still were a lot of clouds. It's that heavenly sky time with sunbeams poking through. Iin the far distance, one sun beam made it to the ground and was moving with the wind. It looks like an alien spaceship was shining a beam of light to earth in search of it's next abduction victim.

Memories of spring

Field work has pretty much been nonexistent that past month. It makes for some boring times but at least my farmer's tan has had a chance to fade slightly. I finished up the big turtle reports and got it out the door with time to spare on Monday. Hopefully by next week, I'll be pulled back into field work. I'll probably regret saying that once it gets very hot and humid out. So I will leave you with two photos I took at my local wetlands during the fantastic spring excitement. I love it when the winter chill is mostly gone and it's that first few days you can go outside without a coat. I always feel a bit vulnerable and think it's too almost good to be true. Like I'm missing something...like a big coat.

Unauthorized blood donation

I was out today in Warren-tucky aka Warren County, NJ. It was a small site so I thought we would be done real quick with relatively little effort. Not the case. First off it's a white trash autobody place and there are dozens of abandoned vehicles everywhere. Half of which are mostly full of garbage. I even spotted a dead rat in a puddle next to a car. They have been filling wetlands to create a place to park these gems, which is a violation of the wetland rules. And they are using chunks of asphalt, concrete bits, broken up gravestones, and just plain junk to build up the land. Add a dense cover of prickers and weeds taller than me. Now add some light rain so everything is real slick. So walking around is real challenging because the ground is so uneven and slippery, and you can't see where you are going. The wetlands are no better and just a jungle of prickers and other dense shrubs. If that isn't enough fun, now throw in swarms of mosquitoes that are dying for blood. When they get fierce they try to go in your eyes, ears, nose, etc. I wish I had my headnet with me. Alas I left it in the truck.

This van is not from this place but I saw it someplace else. I can't even imagine the glare all that paper throws on the windshield but I guess they can't live without all that crap.

suit and tie not required

I am an environmental consultant in New Jersey. That means I get to spend quite a bit of time outside in the wilds of NJ. Most of time I delineate the boundaries of wetlands. Wetlands are protected so property owners and developers want to know how much wetlands are on their property and where exactly they are. The fun times of years we get to do threatened and endangered species surveys. That includes birds, amphibians, and reptiles surveys. Typical obstacles are thickets of prickers, falling/getting stuck in the water/muck, ticks, mosquitoes, bears and other large animals, and of course people. In this blog, I'll attempt to retell some of the more memorable past field outings and keep you posted on the latest events.

Like this photo. You would never be able to tell from this photo, that's a big bear hangout. That stump in the front of the pic was recently torn up by a bear. There's bear poop everywhere and in the fall, it smelled like a zoo. I get to go back there a few more times and perhaps even at night..yikes.