My experience at Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation made me reflect on what I really want to do in the future. One moment that actually sparked that was when one of the docents that was volunteering talked to me about his life and how from when he was younger, he has worked in many different fields and areas, but he is still very successful. I realize that it is important that no matter what you will be doing in life that it is very important to love what you are doing so you are able to achieve your maximum potential as a person. While I have not concluded on whether or not I want to have a career related to nature or wildlife after my internship I have gained a better understanding of the importance of passion when it comes to your work. The people at my workplace are all very knowledgeable people, and one of the things that I notice about them is that they are all very passionate about the lagoon and serving the community around them to the joys of the lagoon. They are willing to put time and effort for practically nothing just because of their sincere love of the lagoon and their work. The most important thing right now for me is to understand what I really enjoy the most in terms of work, and to pursue that career and see where I end up. At the same time it's also very important to realize that life may take you by the hand and drag you where you may not think of going, and that's fine. I plan to be open to new experiences and not be so narrow-minded in terms of potential work. I will conclude this blog with this, my experience at the lagoon has had a tremendous impact on myself, and hopefully I have had an impact on the people that I have met and have had the pleasure of working. Every single one of them are amazing people who I aspire to liken in the future, for now I will keep working hard and opening new doors towards building my future.
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My project is important to the lagoon because it is very important to understand the animals that roam around the habitat and how they interact with each other. The brochure serves to inform the public of how tracks of animals look and let's them know the most common tracks that are found around the lagoon. Not only that, it is important that the lagoon keeps track of animal populations and sightings to be able to accurately measure the progress of lagoon restoration. The Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation will soon be expanding not only on their building but also their structure, and doing monthly or even yearly bird-counts or other types of data-mining would be beneficial to understand how their efforts have affected the lagoon, in either positive or negative ways. Doing this would result in better future projects and observations and lets the foundation know on what aspects they can improve on. To complete the project I had to go out everyday and observe various locations around the lagoon and log every signs of animals I notice. Some days I would detect very little of a specific kind, and others the ones that show the previous day would be gone, and others would show up, and on a couple of days, there was hardly any animal signs to be found. I tried several attempts to try and see how I myself can influence the lagoon and it's animals by using things such as raw fish as bait or doing various things that did not directly cause destructive effects. For example there was a spot that not many trail walkers visit, and on the first week I saw squirrels, rabbits, and obviously birds, but on later visits I notice that while the birds stayed, I wasn't finding much squirrels or rabbits. In regards to my work with the brochure, I simply had to find out the measurements of the tracks I found of the various animals in the brochure, measure them, and then put together the brochure using my pictures when I had them, or ones online for the ones I was not able to find. How did your project go from an idea or inspiration to a final product?
The idea of creating a brochure was something that my mentor, Mr.Brown originally thought of and said to me as just an idea, but from there I decided that a brochure shouldn't really be something that is too hard to create. We sketched up an idea of how the layout of the brochure would be on regular paper, then decided on the final texts and images to put in the brochure, inside and outside. I found a good online resource to make the paper a specific size, and used that too to add in all the details into the brochure. I grabbed all the images of tracks, a map of the Batiquitos Lagoon trail, and used one of my pictures as part of the cover. I put everything together on Photoshop, then got it printed. How did you make a meaningful contribution to your workplace? I hoped that by gathering a data log of all the tracks I encountered during the trail I will hopefully be able to make a count of what and how many animals come regularly and visit the lagoon and the trail. Checking the level of the tide with a gauge is mostly of my own interest but may also help to see what are the best times to come to the lagoon and how low tide/high tide affects the surrounding area. I help docents and hosts run the nature center, take calls, and welcome visitors. There were also other things that the board members occasionally do such as run a nature class which I assisted in, among other things. My brochure that I created should interest those who come to the lagoon to show what animal are most often able to be tracked down or sometimes even seen at the lagoon. Everyday, at around 8:30 A.M., I arrive here, at the nature center. I am usually the first to arrive so I am the one that usually opens up the place. I set up the flags, the open sign, prop the door open, and open the blinds. Raccoon hind foot, found on the first day, a very fortunate find. Soft or wet grounds are better than usual trail paths to find tracks on. This was found under a bridge (4th picture). Animals usually tend to stay away from trails, and it's not likely you'll see one during the day time as they usually look for food at night. If you look closely, you'd be able to see green/purple in the water, it might seem deep and intimidating at first, but the water only goes as deep as 4-5 feet. Animals traverse under the bridge, not for water (the lagoon has salt water) but to move from one place to another, this place under the bridge connects two areas that are otherwise separated by a road. First draft of tracking brochure.
At my specific internship, it is easy to feel helpless or think that there aren't things for you to do, when in reality there are a ton of things to do, you just really have to be motivated to find the things to do. You really need to advocate for yourself; ask other people questions, and just introduce yourself to them often. I have tried to demonstrate this attribute by making sure that if I am confused by something, need something, or want something, I talk to my mentor or their colleagues so that I can find help. One example of that is two out of the three project I am working on currently are thought up by myself, so that I can have multiple work while there are nothing to work on the other projects. I've talked and tried to introduce myself to other docents or hosts to get to know them better and use them as resources in case I ever need help with something. I don't think I will be exactly "the intern everyone remembers," but I think my work there should leave at least a little bit of impact to the organization and help out the people working there. Making the things I do be something that ends up being useful or important in the end would be enough for me and (in all likelihood) my mentor to think that my internship at Batiquitos Lagoon was worthwhile.
-Bilal Salinggih For my internship project I will be doing several things to help out the lagoon whether in regards to tracking or otherwise. My first real task involves creating a tracking brochure that will inform any person who goes to the nature center of what tracks of animals they may encounter during their visit. I am creating a front cover, 3 sub-pages with pictures of tracks and the animals they belong to, and also their measurements. Another aspect of my project is to log all the tracks I myself have and will encounter at the lagoon and make a data collection of them online, and also log the tide pattern of the lagoon every day Monday through Friday at specific times. There might be more opportunities for other tasks of work to do, but for now these are the ones I am sticking with. The skills I need to be successful in my project is the dedication to come everyday on time and do all these data collection, and also patience to do make sure that I complete everything that I need to do. I don't need much support but I will probably get in touch with my mentor to help me succeed at what I need to do and complete my project.
Interview with James Brown:
Questions about the organization
Questions about this career
A good final question
Internship Reflection
It strikes me that while the Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation is an important and good organization, it really relies mostly on the help of volunteers. It is a vast place and is part of many people's jogging place, and the place houses many varieties of animals and plants. My colleagues are mostly adults who are well into their adult life, sparing their important time to volunteer for the lagoon. They are very knowledgeable about the lagoon about it's history and importance, something I'm still learning about. It strikes me that my job is mostly something that is observational and about logging data. I will check for water testing, and perhaps some restoration work, in addition to my daily check of tracks and logs of the tide. I am currently in the process of creating a brochure for the nature center there. I am excited about the potential of really enjoying the internship, but I am also nervous about the possibility that I might run out of things to do there.
-Bilal Salinggih For internship I will be going to Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad. I will be mentored by James Brown a tracking professional, and I will be assisting in identifying mammals that calls the lagoon and nearby area their home. I will be doing this by checking several hot spots that animals regularly visit or pass by and check for footprints, furs or feathers, scat, and carcasses. There are also several possibilities that I would help several other people that are in charge of the lagoon and help them with their work such as water testing or some other work. I am mostly excited about the prospect of exploring and perhaps getting to understand more about animals, their daily routine, and the impact the presence of people has on their habitat. On the other hand, I am apprehensive that I might not have enough to do while I am at the site and do my work too fast and run out of things to do for one day. Starting May 18th, Monday, I will head to Batiquitos and begin my work.
-Bilal Salinggih |