Nice mishmash of different things today.

Today started off working around the office. Entered in some cactus data, helped organize the new filing system, carried in a bunch of drills that we'll be needing for saturday (needed to charge the batteries!), things like that. The biologist and I drove around for a while, meeting up with the tree contractors (basically watching them RIP SMASH TEAR, pretty entertaining), filling out a paperwork survey for one of the wetland pools (asking about the percent cover of invasive species, the depth of water, amount of foliage, etc; this is to determine how suitable it is as a habitat for breeding birds), and various odds and ends.

For the afternoon, we went out for our LAST BIT OF CACTUS WORK (hooray!). Although it was left last because he didn't know where the stake was, time constraints, etc, I think unofficially it was saving the best for last. This outcrop was basically a really tall hill, and once we (finally) got to the top, we could see a ridiculously large portion of the refuge. It was absolutely breathtaking, I wish I had my camera with me! The area was a little bit wetter than most of the other outcrops, so it had a relatively high biodiversity, since it was still dry enough in areas for most of the regular outcrop inhabitants, but wet enough to support different forms of life. I saw a little brown skink, he was so cute!

When we were finally done, we drove around a bit more, then headed back to the office, where I finished entering in all the data(!) - we ended up with roughly 1600 cacti, phew!

Tomorrow I head out bright and early to drive out to The Cities, where I'll be sitting through a 3 day workshop; therefore, I don't know when I'll be posting next!