Archivos de diario de diciembre 2020

02 de diciembre de 2020

Tuesday 12/1/2020

December 1st, 2020 (Tuesday) 9:10-11:50 pm: 15 dead newts found, no live newts
Weather was nice, foggy earlier in the morning. No real rain in the past couple of weeks, after the initial rain. Rainfall: (MTD: 0 in; YTD: 0.93 in). Data from - http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php
@tyap and me documented 15 dead newts, 3 of them juveniles. Only one of the newts was freshly killed. It was found right in front of population study #1. I didn't include it in our project yet, I'd like to wait and see if we get a photo of it from the survey team. The rest of the newts were very dry, and were probably there for a while.

Other roadkills: 1 slender salamander, 2 unidentified vertebrates, a caterpillar, 3 Jerusalem Crickets, 1 cricket, 5 soil centipedes.
Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.
Traffic: 2 trucks, 34 cars, 2 motorcycles, 4 bikes, 9 pedestrians, and 17 cars parked by the road and in the parking lots. Some of the cars were county roads pickups.

We met the Midpen population study a few times. They haven't seen any live newts since the last rain.
The rowing club was open. All county park parking lots were open.

Publicado el 02 de diciembre de 2020 por merav merav | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

05 de diciembre de 2020

Volunteer meeting

Hi all,
Tiffany suggested we'll have another volunteer meeting, so that she could meet everyone. We've got a few items on a tentative agenda:

  • Meeting Tiffany, and learning about the Center for Biological Diversity interest in our project
  • Updates about the Midpen population study, and Midpen's 1/13 board meeting
  • Additional newt studies we might need/ want to do
  • Working in pairs
  • A possible volunteer outing

  • Any other issues anyone would like to raise.
    @truthseqr, @newtpatrol, @sea-kangaroo, @anudibranchmom, @joescience1, @karangattu, @tyap @biohexx1



  • Publicado el 05 de diciembre de 2020 por merav merav | 8 comentarios | Deja un comentario

    06 de diciembre de 2020

    November 27, 2020 - north side

    13 dead newts (of which 1 was a juvenile), 0 live newts.
    November 27th, 2020 (Friday)
    Weather: Clear day in the mid 60s. No rain for many days.
    Other roadkill: none.
    Coverage: County Park parking lot to second stop sign.
    Rainfall: MTD 0.83in, YTD 0.93in (per http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php?year=2021)
    Traffic: 56 cars, 36 parked cars not counting the big county lot, 8 motorcycles, 22 bicycles, 14 walkers.

    All parking lots appeared open. The Midpen study areas had no newts or other critters in their sections of road. All of the newts were quite dry.

    Newt map:

    Publicado el 06 de diciembre de 2020 por sea-kangaroo sea-kangaroo | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

    07 de diciembre de 2020

    South side - December 3, 2020

    4 dead newts (very dry), 0 juveniles, 0 live newts
    December 3rd, 2020 (Thursday)
    Weather: Lovely, partly cloudy day in the mid 60s. No rain for many days.
    Other roadkill: skunk
    Coverage: Aldercroft parking to first stop sign
    Rainfall: MTD 0.83in, YTD 0.93in (per http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php?year=2021)
    Traffic: 24 cars, 9 trucks, 3 bicycles, 2 walkers

    My first patrol of the year, a lovely day for it. I got psyched out for a while by squished bay nuts in the road, so many of them, and they often look kinda like newts.

    Publicado el 07 de diciembre de 2020 por newtpatrol newtpatrol | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

    Dec 7, 2020 - VERY quiet on the south side

    3 dead newts, 0 juveniles, 0 live newts.
    December 7, 2020 (Monday)
    Weather: Dry and sunny in the mid 50s. No rain for many days.
    Other roadkill: Flat skunk still there from my last walk; various arthropods; two dopey deer in the road added as 'pre-roadkill' only because noting the location of their crossing point may be important.
    Coverage: Aldercroft parking to first stop sign
    Rainfall: MTD 0.0", YTD 0.93" (per http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php?year=2021)
    Traffic: 12 moving cars (one Audi speeding, the rest at a decent pace), 3 parked cars, 0 trucks (Covid lockdown!?), 2 cyclists who complimented my Newt Patrol vest as they passed, and 1 probably-illegal fisherman fishing along the edge of the drained reservoir.
    Pit traps: Empty.

    Publicado el 07 de diciembre de 2020 por anudibranchmom anudibranchmom | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

    10 de diciembre de 2020

    Wednesday, 12/9/2020

    December 9th, 2020 (Wednesday) 9:0-11:50 am: 5 dead newts found, no live newts
    Weather was nice. No rain since the first event. Rainfall: (MTD: 0 in; YTD: 0.93 in). Data from - http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php
    @karangattu and me documented 5 dead newts, 1 of them juveniles. They were all very dry. Two of the newts were found in front of population study #2. They were included in the project, we can always remove them later if we get the photos from HTH.
    Other roadkills: many Jerusalem Crickets and centipedes, and a few other arthropods.
    Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.
    Traffic: 6 trucks (including a fire truck), 37 cars, 11 bikes, 15 pedestrians, and 19 cars parked by the road and in the parking lots.
    We were behind the HTH team, but we saw them at the end of their route, and we pointed out the newts near #2. We didn't remove the newts, we marked them with rocks (on the side of the road).
    The traffic study has been removed. I thought it was supposed to be there fr a while, or at least I expected it to be.
    The rowing club was open. All county park parking lots were open.

    Publicado el 10 de diciembre de 2020 por merav merav | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

    11 de diciembre de 2020

    Pacific Newt Mortality in November

    The following charts depict Pacific Newt mortality in the month of November at Lexington Reservoir for four migration seasons. Notice the start of migration is different each year, depending on the cumulative rainfall in the month of November. Also notice the Nov. death toll is much higher this year than in previous seasons. The bars in the second chart mark survey dates (surveys were conducted 1-2 times per week). The arrows indicate the start of migration for each season.

    November

    Publicado el 11 de diciembre de 2020 por truthseqr truthseqr | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

    13 de diciembre de 2020

    December 12, 2020 - south side

    29 dead newts (of which 7 were juveniles), 0 live newts.
    December 12th, 2020 (Saturday) 9:50am-12pm.
    Weather: Overcast low clouds, low-mid 60s. Rained gently the previous night and some scattered light drizzle as I was driving down.
    Other roadkill: 1 Arboreal Salamander, 1 Western Toad, 1 large millipede, 1 banana slug (A. buttoni), 1 Striped Skunk (which I didn't try to remove, no thanks)
    Coverage: Aldercroft Heights intersection to stop sign.
    Rainfall: MTD 0.32in, YTD 1.25in (per http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php?year=2021)
    Traffic: 4 trucks, 36 cars, 9 parked cars, 1 motorcycle, 14 bicycles, 23 walkers.
    Pit traps: 10 live newts! First alive newts I've seen in 2020! Also 3 large millipedes and a dwarf tarantula.
    The Midpen study area had no newts in their sections of road demarcated by their fences. If they're really doing the 50' either side thing then there was 1 newt in that area, which I reflexively flung into the bushes and couldn't retrieve, so that wasn't so great. It was this one.

    All of the newts were very fresh. More of them seemed to be on the east (away from reservoir) side of the road.

    Newt map:

    Publicado el 13 de diciembre de 2020 por sea-kangaroo sea-kangaroo | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

    17 de diciembre de 2020

    December 16, 2020 - South side

    December 12th, 2020 (Wednesday) 1:15pm - 3:15pm.
    Coverage: Aldercroft Heights intersection to first stop sign.

    88 dead newts (of which 6 were juveniles), 0 live newts. A majority were dry, maybe 20% fresh.
    Other roadkill: None noticed, aside from the fading skunk.

    Weather: Mid 60s, partly cloudy, rain coming tonight.
    Rainfall: MTD 1.46in, YTD 2.39in (per http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php?year=2021)

    Traffic: 4 trucks (1 MidPen), 20 cars, 6 bicycles, 0 peds.

    Pit traps: No newts, one Darkling Beetle.
    There are now pink flags on either side of the pit traps that may be 50' demarcation (looks about right.)

    And something odd... Part of the road was recently repaved, so the center lines were re-painted. The line-painter went right over a dead newt which was adhered to the road. I took a photo as they were, then dutifully peeled it off, leaving a shadow that will endure for years. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66678920

    Publicado el 17 de diciembre de 2020 por newtpatrol newtpatrol | 4 comentarios | Deja un comentario

    December 16, 2020 - North side

    December 16th, 2020 (Wednesday) 9:00 am -1:30 pm:
    Weather: Mid 60s, partly cloudy
    Rainfall: MTD 1.46in, YTD 2.39in (per http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php?year=2021)
    Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.

    @merav and me documented 168 dead newts (of which 30 were juveniles). A Handful of newts were really fresh since they had preserved their posture when being run over. The HTH team said they found 5 dead ones near their population study areas but we found there were at least 6 more dead ones that had been lying there for more than a day within the 50 ft of the pitfall traps.

    Traffic: 6 trucks, 60 cars, 11 bikes, 6 pedestrians, and 22 cars parked by the road and in the parking lots.

    Publicado el 17 de diciembre de 2020 por karangattu karangattu | 5 comentarios | Deja un comentario
    Vida Silvestre es una entidad asociada a la Organización Mundial de Conservación