Archivos de Diario para febrero 2020

domingo, 02 de febrero de 2020

newt survey 1/31 - southern half (Aldercroft)

219 dead newts, 0 live newts.
January 31, 2020 (Friday) 1:30pm-3:30pm
Weather: Dry, sunny, 65F, gorgeous. Had been dry or only light rain for the previous few days.
Other roadkill: 1 Arboreal Salamander, 1 frog, 1 large millipede, 1 large beetle larva, 1 banana slug.
Coverage: Aldercroft Heights Road intersection to stop sign.
Rainfall: MTD 2.84in, YTD 15.19in (per http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php?year=2020)
Traffic: 26 vehicles, 5 bicycles.

Again this time most of the newts were on the east (away from the reservoir) side. About 24 were fresh/bright orange.

Newt map:

My knee's been doing better, so I'm going to try going 2 times next week.

Publicado el domingo, 02 de febrero de 2020 a las 05:36 PM por sea-kangaroo sea-kangaroo | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

jueves, 06 de febrero de 2020

North side - 2/5/2020

February 5, 2020 (Wednesday) 9:00 am – 11:00 am: 325 dead newts, 0 alive. No real fresh newts, some were fresher than others.
It was very cold, but dry. It didn't rain in San Jose for at least a few days.
I documented 325 dead newts.
Other roadkills - 1 dead snake, another animal, a Jerusalem cricket, and a caterpillar.
Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.
Rainfall: (MTD: 0.01 in; YTD: 15.20 in) cold, dry. Data from - http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php
Traffic: 5 trucks, 23 cars (including a few maintenance pickups - county parks and road works), 3 bike, 10 pedestrians, and 1 motorcycle. When I got back to the county parks' parking lot, I counted 20 cars there (in the lot and on the side of the road). I usually see <5 cars there.

Publicado el jueves, 06 de febrero de 2020 a las 08:36 PM por merav merav | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

martes, 11 de febrero de 2020

North side - 2/11/2020

February 11, 2020 (Tuesday) 9:00 am – 11:00 am: 264 dead newts, 0 alive. No real fresh newts, some were fresher than others. No rain for a while now.
Weather was nice, not too cold, even at 9am.
I documented 264 dead newts. I've only included newts found on the road, between the white lines, or on them, thinking that dead newts won't stay on the road for too long, since cars, bikes, and people, and animals might move them away. They might stay longer, however, on the side of the road.
Other roadkills - 1 dead snake, 1 millipede, 1 Jerusalem cricket.
Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.
Rainfall: (MTD: 0.02 in; YTD: 15.21 in) cold, dry. Data from - http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php
Traffic: 7 trucks, 23 cars (including a Midpen maintenance pickup), 5 bikes, 10 pedestrians.

Publicado el martes, 11 de febrero de 2020 a las 11:13 PM por merav merav | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

jueves, 13 de febrero de 2020

South/Aldercroft side - 2/12/2020

Coverage: Aldercroft Heights Road intersection to stop sign.
Time: 9:54am - 11:46am

Weather: Warm, clear, dry, has been dry for quite a while now.
Rainfall: MTD 0.02 in, YTD 15.21 in (per http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php)

Vehicles: 21 (including one MidPen truck and several trucks working on Soda Springs Road)
Bikes: 2
Pedestrians: 0

One of the Soda Springs workers asked what I was doing and was sympathetic.

88 dead newts, none fresh, most very dry
1 dead Jerusalem cricket
1 dead squirrel (I think western grey)
1 dead young ring-necked snake

While both the squirrel and snake were found on the road, neither were obviously run over, so I won't label them as roadkill, since I'm not sure what got them.

Publicado el jueves, 13 de febrero de 2020 a las 05:21 AM por newtpatrol newtpatrol | 3 comentarios | Deja un comentario

viernes, 14 de febrero de 2020

newt survey 2/07 - southern half (Aldercroft)

147 dead newts, 0 live newts.
February 7, 2020 (Friday) 12:45pm-3:30pm
Weather: Dry, sunny, 65F, gorgeous. Had been dry for at least the previous week.
Other roadkill: 1 large beetle larva, 1 tiny bat!
Coverage: Aldercroft Heights Road intersection to stop sign.
Rainfall: MTD 0.02in, YTD 15.21in (per http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php?year=2020)
Traffic: around 30 vehicles, 9 bicycles, 1 motorcycle.

Again this time most of the newts were on the east (away from the reservoir) side. Only one was fresh. It's been quite dry so I suspect many of them were duplicates, as it seems like they tend to become mummified "crackers" if there's no rain. Detachable cracker ones I kicked well off the road into the leaf litter, so they'll have no chance of being duplicates in the future. This time & the last time I was out (1/31) I took all of my photos with the same orientation of the camera (top side parallel to center road stripe), which I hope will make it easier to compare potential duplicates, which I'll have a go at later this weekend.

Saw a bald eagle being harassed by 3 red-tailed hawks.

Newt map:

Publicado el viernes, 14 de febrero de 2020 a las 09:53 PM por sea-kangaroo sea-kangaroo | 9 comentarios | Deja un comentario

miércoles, 19 de febrero de 2020

North side - 2/18/2020

February 18, 2020 (Tuesday) 9:00 am – 11:00 am: 91 dead newts, 0 alive. No real fresh newts, some were fresher than others. No rain for a long time...
The weather was nice, warm in the sun.
I documented 91 dead newts. I've only included fresh-looking newts found on the road, between the white lines, or on them. I took photos of many more newts on the road, but for now I've decided to omit them. They seemed very dry, and I'm not sure they haven't been there for a while. I will keep the photos, in case we decide later to include them. When I'll have time I'll try to compare their location with last week's observations. I would like to discuss Anne's decomposition study with her when she's available, and decide what to do with these photos.
Other roadkills - 3 millipedes, 1 dead beetle, 2 dead caterpillars.
Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.
Rainfall: (MTD: 0.02 in; YTD: 15.21 in) cold, dry. Data from - http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php
Traffic: 3 trucks, 33 cars (including a Valley Water maintenance pickup), 2 bikes, 1 motorcycle, 3 pedestrians.

Publicado el miércoles, 19 de febrero de 2020 a las 03:48 PM por merav merav | 3 comentarios | Deja un comentario

jueves, 20 de febrero de 2020

South/Aldercroft side - 2/19/2020

2/19/2020, 10:15am - 12:06pm
Coverage: Aldercroft Heights Road intersection to second stop sign.

29 dead newts (Updated number - see below), 0 live newts
Other roadkill: 1 large millilpede

Weather: Sunny, clear, in the low 60sF, very dry for too long now!
Rainfall: MTD 0.02in, YTD 15.21in (per http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php?year=2020)

Vehicles: 20
Bikes: 3
Pedestrians: 1

I'm swamped with life right now, so just posting this so everyone knows that section got done, but it's possible that the final numbers and observations won't get posted for a week or two.

  • Update: I culled a bunch of my potential observations from that day, in the effort not to duplicate.

Like @merav, I'll only include ones that looked not super old, and like @sea-kangaroo I also started flinging the easily-detachable newt crackers off the road to make things less confusing next time.

Still, there were some in a middle state that may have been recorded already, so before I commit my observations, I'll compare them against the previous week or so and try not to post duplicates.

Also, I did see the request to remove my previous identified duplicates from the project, and will do so as soon as I have time. If it's somehow time-critical to remove them soon, let me know.

  • Update: I removed the ones labeled as duplicate.
Publicado el jueves, 20 de febrero de 2020 a las 03:31 PM por newtpatrol newtpatrol | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

miércoles, 26 de febrero de 2020

North side - 2/26/2020

February 26, 2020 (Wednesday) 9:50 am – 10:50 am: 7 "fresh" dead newts, 0 alive.
The weather was nice and warm.
I documented 7 fresh dead newts.
I've only included fresh-looking newts. 1 of them was definitely killed very recently, the rest I think are quite recent as well. I tried to remove (kick to shoulder) all newts that weren't attached. The problem was that the ones that were easily detached were obviously very old. The fresher ones cannot be removed easily, so that's not very helpful. But still, I removed dozens of newts from the road. Also, there were many newts left on the road, that I didn't document this time, as they looked pretty old and dry. But I'm not sure that was a good decision, as I know nothing about their decomposition in these hot, dry conditions. Maybe they were killed a few days ago (after the last documentation a week ago), but appear very dry? Iwill copy these questions to our decomposition discussion, so please follow up here - https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/31011-pacific-newt-roadkill-how-to-identify-duplicate-observations
Other roadkills - 1 garter snake, 1 fence lizard, 1 other lizard, 1 cricket, 1 Jerusalem cricket, 1 millipede, 1 caterpillar.
Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.
Rainfall: (MTD: 0.02 in; YTD: 15.21 in), nice and warm (25C). Data from - http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php
Traffic: 15 trucks, 27 cars (including a maintenance tractor, 1 driving, the other carried on a bigger truck), 7 bikes, 23 pedestrians.

Publicado el miércoles, 26 de febrero de 2020 a las 10:44 PM por merav merav | 6 comentarios | Deja un comentario