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.