North side - 1/28/20

January 28, 2020 (Tuesday) 9:15 am – 12:30 pm: 464 dead newts, 1 injured, 1 alive. Most newts are not fresh, but many were freshly killed.
It was cold when I started, but half way through it got warmer. Started raining when I left. It wasn't rainig in San Jose the night before. I documented 1 injured and 464 dead newts. The injured newts seemed fine at first, was walking towards the hills, on the side of the road. When I picked it up to check if it's a male or a female, I saw its eye was injured. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38101655. I also saw a live individual for the first time this year in the little pond near the Limekiln trailhead. Last year I would see 1-3 individuals there often. This year I have been checking the pond every time, but this was the first time I saw one (documented here - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38071235).
I found a few other roadkills - 2 dead snakes, another animal, some beetles, millipedes, and Jerusalem crickets. I tried to pay more attention to dead insects on the road.
Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.
Rainfall: (MTD: 2.84 in; YTD: 15.19 in) cold, dry. Data from - http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php
Traffic: 7 trucks (including one driving to the rowing club and a tractor driving further down the road), 30 cars (including a few maintenance pickups - county parks and road works), 8 bike, 17 pedestrians, and 1 motorcycle.

Publicado el 29 de enero de 2020 por merav merav

Comentarios

OMG - that's devastating news, @merav.
I just don't understand why the County doesn't do something to stop this carnage.

Publicado por truthseqr hace alrededor de 4 años

yes, there were so many that day!

Publicado por merav hace alrededor de 4 años

I've added a comment about a live individual I found during the survey

Publicado por merav hace alrededor de 4 años

and another comment - I saw a chipmunk trying to eat something on the road near the Limekiln trailhead. I think it was trying to eat seeds out of a gray fox scat :)

Publicado por merav hace alrededor de 4 años

Nature is so interesting!

Publicado por truthseqr hace alrededor de 4 años

:)

Publicado por merav hace alrededor de 4 años

@merav, per your request, I compared the observations for 2020-01-28 with the previous week (2020-01-21) to check for duplicates. This was a few weeks before you & the team decided to remove old roadkill from the road. I only found 5 duplicates. Here are the matching pairs:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37827501 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38072204

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38072205 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37827502

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37827508 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38072184

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38073521 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828108

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828140 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38073514

I also found 6 same-day duplicates for 2020-01-28. Here are the duplicate pairs:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828127 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828167

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828128 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828168

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828124 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828163

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828123 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828159

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828131 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828169

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828126 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37828165

Notes:
I didn't remove any of the duplicates. I'll leave it to you to decide what to do with them.
When comparing roadkill from one week or survey to the next, I use the Calendar view because the pictures are larger & easier to compare. However, Calendar view only shows 200 pictures. I also use the following criteria to find duplicates:

Compare the shape and orientation of the body & tail.
Look for cracks in the road, yellow & white lines, and color and pattern of stones in the road in the roadkill picture.
Compare the GPS coordinates - the newts may be tossed about from one day/week to the next, so the GPS coordinates may not be exactly the same.
The comparison of these two days took 2 hours.

Publicado por truthseqr hace más de 3 años

Anne, thank you so much for spending two hours comparing these gross observations. I've removed all duplicated observations.

Publicado por merav hace más de 3 años

You're welcome, @merav. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

Publicado por truthseqr hace más de 3 años

Agregar un comentario

Acceder o Crear una cuenta para agregar comentarios.
Vida Silvestre es una entidad asociada a la Organización Mundial de Conservación