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.