Robin and Terri
Thursday, 9:00 - 11:35 AM, 38 dead adult newts, no live ones, no juveniles
Weather: 51-58 °F, sunny, no wind
Coverage: Aldercroft Heights junction to the second stop sign
Other roadkill: None
Other still alive: 2 Lepidoptera
Traffic - 20 cars, 22 trucks, 6 cyclists, 2 runners moving impressively fast
Thursday, 9:20-11:25 pm. 54 dead newts, no live ones, no juveniles.
Weather: Very cold, there was still a bit of frost by the road. It was raining yesterday in San Jose.
Coverage: Jones trailhead to the second stop sign. I walked with Terry.
I documented 39 dead newts, most of them were fresh. Terry had 15 newts.
Other roadkill: Jerusalem cricket.
Traffic - 33 cars, 11 trucks (including County Parks, County Roads, FedEx), 2 motorcycles, 5 bikes, 21 pedestrians, 16 parked cars (1 car at the farther parking lot).
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-11&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
** We've been seeing very low numbers of newts in recent surveys. I'd expect to find 200+ newts in a day like today. The extant road work by County Roads can explain only a bit of what we are seeing, as every year they scrape the road itself, removing some newts while doing so. So far they have scraped the sides of the road, till about 5-7 meters above the road, from Aldercroaft Heights intersection to the boat club - about 3 miles of the road. They removed whole trees, including many I have been watching for years, that had rare and unique galls, as well as countless other plants (and creatures). There were some rare plants there as well, and it was a habitat for so many species... In addition, these plants were holding the soil, so I guess we can expect even more land slides in the next few years.
Friday, 9:05-11:40 am. 34 dead newts, no live ones
Weather: very cold!
Coverage: from ABR and Eldercroft Heights intersection to the first stop sign. I walked with Oscar, Lindsay, and Jumana. Jumana only stayed for the first half of the survey.
We documented about 30 dead newts. I documented 25 dead newts, at least 2 of them were juveniles. Lindsay documented 9 newts. We had 19 newts on the reservoir side, and 15 on the hill side.
Other roadkill: caterpillars, dead and alive. A slander salamander.
Traffic - 22 cars, 6 trucks (county roads), 1 motorcycle, 4 bikes, 10 pedestrians, 4 parked cars. We saw some County Roads trucks passing by, but they weren't working in the south section. Some utility trucks were meeting by Soda Spring Canyon.
Lindsay's observations - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-12&place_id=any&user_id=ljoye
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-12&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
Jennifer and I walked the north segment on January 6 from from 8:00 to 9:45 am. The weather was cool-- 48 F with light winds from the south.
We saw 0 live newts and 39 dead newts: 25 on reservoir side, 14 on uphill side. All adults.
There were 44 cars, 10 trucks, 14 bicyclists, and 22 pedestrians (a running club out for a run). There was a fair amount of scraped mud on the road.
Other roadkill: millipedes, earthworm, caterpillar, red centipede.
Terry and Joe surveyed the north section from about 8 am to 10 am. The temperature was in the low to mid 50s F, no wind so not really cold. The roadway seemed very clean (no road crew due to MLK holiday). We found relatively few newts again: 40 newts, 2 millipedes. Many of the remains were rather fresh looking. As this was a holiday, traffic seemed fairly light:
27 cars (roughly 80% before the crew dock parking lot)
10 trucks (3 back and forth)
4 cyclists
12 hikers
This is a link to my observations for the patrol:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?created_on=2024-01-16&on=2024-01-15&place_id=any&user_id=teellbee&verifiable=any
Wednesday, 9:00am-11:13am. 19 dead newts, no live ones, no juveniles
Weather: low-50's. No breeze; partially cloudy
Coverage: From the intersection of Aldercroft Heights Road X Alma Bridge road to the stop sign..
Terry and I walked together. I documented the newts stated above, 5 of which were found on the Resevoir side of the road, and the remaining 14 were found on the hill side of the road.
Traffic: 19 cars; 12 trucks; 2 bikes
My observations from this day: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-17&place_id=any&user_id=motherpurina&verifiable=any
Thursday, January 25. I observed 19 dead newts; no live ones; no juveniles
Merav had 31 dead newts, 3 juveniles. --- 50 newts in total
Time: 9:08 am - 11:24 am
Coverage: from ABR and Aldercroft Heights intersection to the first stop sign.
I walked with Merav.
Weather: Started at 46 degrees, but warmed up to 70 by the time we were done. No wind, a few clouds.
Other roadkill I observed: 1 snail, 1 bullfrog, a turkey
Merav had a toad, tree frog, 1 bullfrog, shoulderband snails, millipedes, Jerusalem cricket, beetles
Traffic - 13 cars, 20 trucks, 1 motorcycle, 1 pedestrian, 11 bicyclists.
My observations from the day: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-25&place_id=any&user_id=motherpurina&verifiable=any
Merav's observations - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-25&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
Terry and Monica inspected the North Section
Friday, January 26. Terry observed 37 dead newts, including 2 juveniles; no live ones
Momca had 28 dead newts, including 2 juveniles. --- 65 newts in total
Time: 9:10 am - 11:15 am
Coverage: from Lexington Reservoir County Park parking lot to the 2nd stop sign.
Weather: partly cloudy, mid-to-high 50s.
Other roadkill we observed: 1 amphibian, several millipedes, possible snail
Traffic - 33 cars, 21trucks, 0 motorcycle, 2 pedestrian, 7 bicyclists.
Terry's observations from the day:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-26&place_id=any&subview=table&user_id=teellbee&verifiable=any&iconic_taxa=Amphibia
Monica's observations from the day:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-26&place_id=any&subview=table&user_id=monicarichards
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Jennifer and Merav walked the south section of Alma Bridge Road.
Jennifer's observations: 24 dead adult newts, 1 juvenile. no live newts
Merav's observations: 16 dead newts, 3 juveniles
Time: 9:01 am - 10:57 am
Coverage: from Alma Bridge Road (at the Aldercroft Heights road intersection) to the stop sign
Weather: Started at 55 degrees, and rose to 59 degrees when we were finished. Cloudy skies, occasionally very windy.
Other roadkill we observed: several millipedes; the remains from the turkey that we observed last week; a probable snail; a scorpion, a centipede, and a few beetles
Traffic - 9 cars, 7 trucks, 1 motorcycle, 0 pedestrians, 0 bicyclists.
Jennifer's observations from the day: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-31&place_id=any&user_id=motherpurina&verifiable=any
Merav's observations from the day: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-01-31&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
