South section - 11/111/2022

Friday, 9:20-2:00 pm. 7 live newts!!! many hundreds of dead newts, mostly tiny juveniles.
Weather: cold. I got a frost warning in the morning, so I was expecting less newts.
Coverage: Aldercroft Heights intersection to Soda Spring Rd. We didn't make it to the stop sign as there were too many newts. I walked with Rani.
Newts: I had 471 dead newts, 433 of them juveniles! We also had 7 live individuals! I lost at least 20 more newts, due to issues with my phone. We also skipped some of the decaying tiny newts, when numbers were so high. Rani had about 10 dead newts.
Last week's note: most of the newts were tiny juveniles, including the live ones. I've never seen so many little ones during one survey. The live ones were walking towards the hill. = same today.... we helped the newts cross, and also one centipede. We watched one tiny newt racing on the road, all the way to the white line. 3 motorcycles passed by (from a safe distance), and it froze. It stayed on the white line for a long time, so we had to move it as well. Most of the tiny ones were found in one huge area. Very few outside that area.
Other roadkills: toad, Jerusalem Crickets, centipedes, caterpillars.
Traffic: 30 cars, 9 trucks, 7 motorcycles, 13 bikes, 0 pedestrians, 2 parked cars.
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-11-11&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
We spoke with one bike rider, a Midpen ranger, and a family, who were all aware of the newt study, and were interested to hear how it's doing.

Publicado el 12 de noviembre de 2022 por merav