South section - 12/02/2022
Friday, 9:20-1:15 pm. 1 live newt! We had 295 dead newts, again mostly tiny juveniles, in 2 main areas.
Weather: very cold. We could feel the frost on the road, and even saw frost on some of the newts. Steam came out of the ground! It rained well the day before the survey.
Coverage: Aldercroft Heights intersection to the first stop sign. I walked with Sophie and Rani.
Newts: we had 295 dead newts, 219 of them juveniles. 96 of the newts (60 Juveniles) were found on the reservoir side, and 199 (159 juveniles) on the hill side. Most juveniles were at the Soda Spring intersection again, but not all. There were some along the road, with a hotspot on the other side of the same hill.
The live newt was found "frozen" by the road. It didn't move at all until it got a bit warmer. It walked in a weird way, we weren't sure if it was wounded.
Other roadkills: centipedes, millipede, caterpillars, 2 toads, 1 slender salamander, a little bird. I also saw another dead bird on the way back from the survey. And deer trying to cross the road on the way in. The doe crossed the road, but her 2 babies hesitated on the other side.
Traffic: 27 cars, 1 truck, 1 motorcycle, 4 bikes, 0 pedestrians, 1 parked car.
A lady on a motorcycle stopped by to ask about the newts, and was curious to hear if things are going to change for the better for the newts.
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-12-02&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
Comments
@merav, it's so tragic there are so many juveniles this year. Is there a way to tell how old they are? Are they last year's offspring?
How strange about the "frozen" newt. I've heard about frogs being frozen like that:
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/blog/2021/04/06/the-frozen-hard-truth-about-frogs-during-the-winter#:~:text=The%20term%20%E2%80%9Cwinter%20kill%E2%80%9D%20occurs%20when%20a%20frog,and%20the%20frog%20actually%20comes%20back%20to%20life.
@merav, it looks like most of the adults are rather big (longer than 5 inches). I wonder if they are the males who migrate before the females?
I don't know. It sounds logical.
Only one of them was clearly a male. But then again, most of them are not identifiable at all.
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