Thursday, March 7, 2024
Terry, John, and Dave walked the North section of Alma Bridge Rd. from the Lexington County Park parking lot to the 2nd stop sign
Time: 9:00 am-11:15 am
Weather: partly cloudy. mid 50s F, following about an inch of rain Tuesday-Wednesday.

Terry (did the documentation) noted: 59 adult newts, 5 juveniles, and 5 amphibians (may have been newts?). No live newts.

Other roadkill: occasional centipede/millipedes, snails, indeterminate amphibians or similar soft-bodied species
Traffic - 38 cars, 17 trucks, 10 bikes, 3 pedestrians

Terry's observations of the day:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-03-07&order_by=observed_on&place_id=any&subview=table&user_id=teellbee&verifiable=any

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Jennifer and Oscar walked the North section of Alma Bridge Rd. from the Lexington County Park parking lot to the 2nd stop sign
Time: 9:05 am-10:34 am
Weather: partly cloudy. Started at 49 degrees F, and climbed to 59 degrees F by the time we finished.

Jennifer documented our findings: 17 adult newts (6 on the hill side and 11 on the resevoir side), 0 juveniles. No live newts.

Other roadkill: occasional centipede/millipedes

Traffic - 18 cars, 15 trucks, 1 bike (), 0 pedestrians
(: there were a group of bicyclists that were starting their ride on Alma Bridge Road, right before we started our survey. We didn't obtain their numbers)

Jennifer's observations of the day:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-03-13&place_id=any&user_id=motherpurina&verifiable=any

Friday, 9:35-12:00 pm. 40 dead newts, no live ones
Weather: nice
Coverage: from ABR and Eldercroft Heights intersection to the first stop sign. I walked with Debbie and Michael W.
We documented 40 dead newts, a few were juveniles. 24 of the newts were documented on the reservoir side, 16 on the hill side.
Other roadkill: fence lizard, beetles, millipedes, earthworm. We saw some butterflies, bees, and turkeys on the road.
Traffic - 31 cars, 14 trucks (Midpen, Fedex), 4 motorcycles, 7 bikes, 3 pedestrians, 6 parked cars.
3 midpen pickups were headed to a French broom removal, and were curious about the status of the newts.
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-03-15&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any

One observer (me), South section from Aldercroft Heights Rd to stop sign
Started: 9:50 am
Finished: 12:05 pm
Weather: Raining! With a few breaks of just clouds
Newts: 40, mostly freshly killed, many undersized or juvenile
Other roadkill: Calif slender salamander, pacific chorus frogs, western toad, banana slugs, earthworms
Cars: 13
Trucks: 1
Bikes: 1
Joggers: 5, including one who stopped to converse about newts 🥰

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Jennifer and Oscar walked the North section of Alma Bridge Road, from the Lexington County Park parking lot to the 2nd stop sign.

Time: 8:59 am - 10:35 am
Weather: clear skies, no wind. The temperature started at 49 degrees F, and climbed to 63 degrees F. when we finished.

Jennifer documented: 4 adult newts, and 1 juvenile newt. Two were found on the hill side, and 3 were found on the Resevoir side. No live newts.
Oscar documented 3 adult newts. No live newts.

Other roadkill: 1 toad, 1 probable earthworm

Traffic -2 pedestrians; 26 cars; 2 bicyclists; 17 parked cars; 6 trucks; 2 large (3+ axle) trucks
(: there were a group of bicyclists that were starting their ride on Alma Bridge Road, right before we started our survey. We didn't obtain their numbers)

Jennifer's observations of the day: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-03-20&place_id=any&user_id=motherpurina&verifiable=any

Friday, 9:12-12:00 pm. 81 dead newts, no live ones
Weather: cloudy, light rain
Coverage: from ABR and Eldercroft Heights intersection to the first stop sign. I walked with Mia.
We documented 81 dead newts, with many juveniles. I documented 31 newts, at least 10 were juveniles. Mia documented 51 newts, at least 12 of which were juveniles. 46 of the newts were on the reservoir side, 35 on the hill side.
Other roadkill: skink, alligator lizard, frog?, milliped, centipede, earthworms, cranefly.
Traffic - 15 cars, 5 trucks (county roads), 0 motorcycles, 2 bikes, 0 pedestrians, 4 parked cars.
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-03-29&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
Mia's observations: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=any&on=2024-03-29&place_id=any&project_id=180854&user_id=mialom&verifiable=any
We collected 8 samples from freshly killed newts to check whether they have a fungal disease (Chytrid Fungi). We'll get the results in a few months.