Archivos de diario de octubre 2020

01 de octubre de 2020

January 15, 2018 - Roadkill

January 15, 2018
Roadkill
I'm very sad and disturbed to report that I saw 46 dead animals on South Bay roadways today (2018-01-15). This is twice as many dead animals in one day as I observed in the whole of 2017.

42 (yes, forty-two!!) Pacific Newts
3 raccoons
1 striped skunk

The raccoons were killed on Highway 17 in Los Gatos. The skunk was on Hwy 237 in Sunnyvale.

The 42 newts were killed on Alma Bridge Rd. between the Limekiln and Priest Rock trailheads (~ half a mile). Many were bloody with guts oozing out, which was really quite traumatizing to see. I only photographed 2 of the 42 to post on iNat. I saw 11 dead newts on this same section of road back in November 2017 (that's 53 dead newts within a 3-month period, but more accurately during 2 visits to Sierra Azul) on a very short section of roadway (half a mile):

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/truthseqr?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=newt%2C+roadkill&search_on=&quality_grade=any&reviewed=&geoprivacy=&identifications=any&captive=&place_id=&swlat=&swlng=&nelat=&nelng=&taxon_name=&taxon_id=&day=&month=&year=2017&order_by=observations.id&order=desc&rank=&hrank=&lrank=&taxon_ids%5B%5D=&d1=&d2=&created_on=&site=&tdate=&list_id=&filters_open=true&view=map

Here are my roadkill sightings for 2017:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/truthseqr?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=roadkill&search_on=&quality_grade=any&reviewed=&geoprivacy=&identifications=any&captive=&place_id=&swlat=&swlng=&nelat=&nelng=&taxon_name=&taxon_id=&day=&month=&year=2017&order_by=observations.id&order=desc&rank=&hrank=&lrank=&taxon_ids%5B%5D=&d1=&d2=&created_on=&site=&tdate=&list_id=&filters_open=true&view=map

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District is working along with other authorities to create safe corridors for wildlife:

See Midpeninsula Regional Openspace District's website: "HIGHWAY 17 WILDLIFE PASSAGE" project to help protect animals from humans.
https://www.openspace.org/our-work/projects/wildlife-crossing

Posted on January 15, 2018 02:48 PM by truthseqr truthseqr | 2 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Publicado el octubre 1, 2020 01:34 TARDE por truthseqr truthseqr | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

16 de octubre de 2020

When will the Lexington newts start migrating this season?

Michael Thomas Hobbs says the most important environmental factor that triggers breeding migrations for the related Santa Cruz Long-toed Salamander (A. m. croceum), is rainfall:
"With the first winter rains in November and December adults migrate en mass from their upland habitat to ponds for breeding (Reed, 1978). Breeding cannot commence until ponds fill and as such, adults do not emerge until the ground has saturated. Records show that when seasonal rainfall exceeds 10.7 cm (4.2”) adults are triggered to begin migrating, with continued rainfall needed to sustain the migration (Anderson, 1966)." pp 14-15
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=7936&context=etd_theses

Peter Claggett offers more insight into newt migrations in his paper:
Migration Patterns of Taricha torosa in Tilden Regional Park
https://nature.berkeley.edu/classes/es196/projects/1989final/ClaggettP_1989.pdf

Hobbs' thesis and Claggett's paper are very apropos to our project and make very interesting reading.

Publicado el octubre 16, 2020 05:15 TARDE por truthseqr truthseqr | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

18 de octubre de 2020

Lexington Newt Population Study (2020-2021)

A Pacific Newt population study will be conducted by HT Harvey & Associates in collaboration with Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) for the migration season starting late November 2020 and ending sometime between April and May 2021. Daily field operations will be led by a biologist from one of the above agencies paired with volunteers.

The study protocol is considered proprietary (POST asked @merav to review it, but no one else on our team has seen it). However, you can read their public-facing request for funding here:
https://www.openspace.org/sites/default/files/20200923_Agmt_NewtMortalityPopulationStudyAlmaBridgeRd_R-20-104.pdf

The study objectives are as follows:
"The planned newt population and mortality study will estimate the number of adult newts attempting to cross Alma Bridge Road to breed in Lexington Reservoir and the percentage that are killed by vehicular strikes during a single breeding season. The data will be analyzed through a model to characterize this percentage relative to long-term impacts on the local newt population... The report will also provide daily levels of vehicular traffic and how these levels compare with levels of newt movement. "

The study was prompted by Santa Clara County Roads, Parks, & Water departments who stated that "further study is needed to better understand the issues..."

The HT Harvey analysis of our 2018-2019 roadkill data found "a concentration of mortality along a few road segments" which they deem "Extremely High Mortality." See the map attachment in the above memo. They will install pitfall traps along six 100 ft. sections of road (0.1 mile) for their study. Please be aware that our team has found newt roadkill along all 4.1 miles of our study area.

The HT Harvey team started field work building their pitfall traps the week of 10-14-20. Merav spoke with Jeff Wilkinson to coordinate the efforts between his team and ours.

Publicado el octubre 18, 2020 09:47 MAÑANA por truthseqr truthseqr | 25 comentarios | Deja un comentario

Virtual Urban Bioblitz - 10/10/2020

Participated in this bioblitz that was part of the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO) fall fundraiser. I collected observations from two sites: Baylands and Ulistac.

Here is the project:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/virtual-urban-bioblitz

Baylands by the Sunnyvale Water Treatment Plant
3.25 hours (7:30-10:45am)

Ulistac Natural Area
1.5 hours (1:25-2:50am)

My observations for the day (194 total):
https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/truthseqr/2020/10/10

Publicado el octubre 18, 2020 11:48 MAÑANA por truthseqr truthseqr | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

23 de octubre de 2020

Amazing Animal Bridges and Crossings Around the World

50 Amazing Animal Bridges And Crossings That Save 1000s Of Animals Every Year:
https://www.boredpanda.com/bridges-for-animals-around-the-world/

Publicado el octubre 23, 2020 03:03 TARDE por truthseqr truthseqr | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

Very Small Feather Collection from SF Bay

Monday, October 19, 2020 was a day for seeing lots of tiny feathers floating on waves in the San Francisco Bay and landing in among the reeds and other detritus on the beach. Since it was a windy day and impossible to photograph these feathers in situ, I brought them home to photograph and measure them, then took them back where I found them.

There were hundreds of birds swimming on the water, including: coots, pied-billed grebes, mallards, cormorants, and others.

All of a sudden, dozens of birds took flight. There was a disturbance in the water. Then we saw a harbor seal! I've never seen one this far south in the bay. What a treat! But the birds didn't think so.

Publicado el octubre 23, 2020 04:01 TARDE por truthseqr truthseqr | 11 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario