Friday, 9:15-12:10 pm. 60 dead newts, no live ones
Weather: Nice, cold. It rained in San Jose a little bit this week.
Coverage: from ABR and Eldercroft Heights intersection to the first stop sign. I walked with Keith, Oscar, and Terry.
We documented 60 dead newts, at least 47 of them were juveniles. Most of them were pretty dry. 45 newts (39 juveniles) were found on the reservoir side, and 15 newts (8 juveniles) were found on the hill side of the road.
Other roadkill: 2 arboreal salamanders, a few frogs, large spiders, millipedes, centipedes, Jerusalem and other crickets, beetles, many caterpillars, slugs - banana slugs and others, but we weren't able to document those.
Traffic - 32 cars, 3 trucks, 0 motorcycles, 6 bikes, 3 pedestrians, 6 parked cars.
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2023-12-01&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any

Thursday, 9:15-11:50 pm. 139 dead newts, no live ones
Weather: Cold. It rained last night in San Jose.
Coverage: Jones trailhead to the second stop sign. I walked alone.
I documented 139 dead newts, many of them were fresh. At least 35 were juveniles. 74 newts (16 juveniles) were found on the hill side of the road, and 65 (19 juveniles) on the reservoir side.
Other roadkill: an arboreal salamander, toad, millipedes, centipedes, Jerusalem crickets, snails and slugs.
Traffic - 44 cars, 8 trucks (including County Parks, County Roads, Midpen, SJJJ), 0 motorcycles, 1 bike, 12 pedestrians, 15 parked cars (0 cars at the farther parking lot).
Near the new Midpen property I stopped to look at the birds - Merlin identified at least 7 bird species, and there was also a little woodpecker that hopped up and down a (poison oak?) twig close to the ground, trying to get all the insects from it.
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=any&on=2023-12-07&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
***** I got some good news today while walking the road -- "Midpen awarded $2.1 million grant from Wildlife Conservation Board to advance newt passage project near Los Gatos"!

Friday, 9:10-12:50 pm. 177 dead newts, no live ones
Weather: cold. It rained in San Jose a little bit this week.
Coverage: from ABR and Eldercroft Heights intersection to the first stop sign. I walked with Monica, Stephanie, and Terry.
I documented 159 dead newts, at least 76 of them were juveniles. Many of the newts were pretty fresh, including a few that looked alive... 111 newts (62 juveniles) were found on the reservoir side, and 48 newts (14 juveniles) were found on the hill side of the road. Terry documented 18 newts.
Other roadkill: 1 arboreal salamander, tree frog, millipedes, centipedes, Jerusalem crickets, beetles, caterpillars. In addition, there were some slugs and snails and possibly 2 other black salamanders, but like many other creatures they weren't identifiable anymore.
Traffic - 24 cars, 6 trucks (county roads), 1 motorcycle, 13 bikes, 3 pedestrians, 6 parked cars.
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2023-12-08&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
Terry's observations - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2023-12-08&place_id=any&user_id=teellbee&verifiable=any

Monday, 9:10-11:30 am. 20 dead newts, no live ones
Weather: cold. It rained in San Jose a little bit last week.
Coverage: from ABR and Eldercroft Heights intersection to the first stop sign. I walked with Ellen, Katie, and Jeff from Midpen.
We documented 20 dead newts, at least 15 of them were juveniles. Most of them were dry.
Other roadkill: 1 arboreal salamander, tree frog, slender salamander, millipedes, centipedes, Jerusalem and camel crickets, beetles, caterpillars, katydid. There was a large deer skeleton by the road, maybe an old roadkill?
Traffic - 15 cars, 4 trucks (SJJJ), 1 motorcycle, 0 bikes, 1 pedestrian, 4 parked cars.
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2023-12-11&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any

Hello team,
I have a big favor to ask all of you...
Please use the following location for all of your newt roadkill observations:

Lexington Reservoir County Park, CA, US

This will allow us to capture all dead newts found in the San Francisco Bay Area that are not captured by our Lexington projects. They will be recorded in the following project:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/pacific-newt-roadkill-other-sf-bay-area-locations

That project was previously set up so that users would have to manually add their newt roadkill observations. Unless people know about this project, the newt roadkill would not be captured. The new collection project will automatically capture observations of all dead newts in the area. However, if people use locations like "Los Gatos, CA" or "Santa Clara County, CA" for the Lexington project, those observations will not be excluded.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thursday, 9:20-11:35 pm. 138 dead newts, no live ones
Weather: Cold. We got heavy rain the day before in San Jose.
Coverage: Jones trailhead to the second stop sign. I walked with Keith.
I documented 138 dead newts, many of them were fresh, others had faded in the rain. At least 13 were juveniles. 58 newts (4 juveniles) were found on the hill side of the road, and 81 (9 juveniles) on the reservoir side.
Other roadkill: Santa Cruz Black salamander, millipedes, centipedes, wasp, banana slugs.
Traffic - 41 cars, 13 trucks (including County Parks, County Roads, construction), 1 motorcycle, 10 bikes, 14 pedestrians, 20 parked cars (3 cars at the farther parking lot).
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=any&on=2023-12-21&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any

Saturday, 9:05-11:45 am. I walked with Terry. Weather was really nice--sunny, in the 60s, light winds.

I documented 40 dead newts, only a few fresh. 26 on the uphill side, 14 on the downhill side. I documented 17 juveniles and 23 adults. Terry also collected observations.

Other roadkill: lots of slender salamander, caterpillar, a few millipedes. 


Traffic: 145 cars, 11 trucks, 1 motorcycle, 36 bikes, 7 pedestrians--a busy Saturday out at the reservoir. We talked to a few hikers and gave them information about the project and website.

I documented approximately 36 dead newts and two slender salamanders. Many of the newts were juveniles.

Friday, 9:15-12:10 am. 116 dead newts, no live ones
Weather: cold. We got heavy rain on Wednesday
Coverage: from ABR and Eldercroft Heights intersection to the first stop sign. I walked with Celeste, Kim, and Maddie. Kim and Maddie are from the boat club, and they only joined us for the first half of the survey.
We documented 116 dead newts, at least 33 of them were juveniles. 79 (32 juveniles) were found on the reservoir side, and 37 (1 juvenile) were found on the hill side.
Other roadkill: 1 arboreal salamander, bull frog, toad, millipedes, centipedes, Jerusalem and camel crickets, banana slugs, and a shoulderband snail.
Traffic - 35 cars, 12 trucks (county roads, county parks), 0 motorcycles, 16 bikes, 7 pedestrians, 9 parked cars. County Roads were doing some maintenance work on the shoulders of the road, and had a few trucks and such around.
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=any&on=2023-12-22&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any

Wednesday, 9:10-11:35 am. 47 dead newts, no live ones
Weather: not too cold, but very windy.
Coverage: from ABR and Eldercroft Heights intersection to the first stop sign. I walked with Jennifer and Terry.
We documented 47 dead newts. I documented 29 dead newts, at least 14 of them were juveniles. Terry documented 18 newts.
Other roadkill: 1 arboreal salamander, slender salamander, millipedes, centipedes, Jerusalem and camel crickets, slugs, caterpillars. Also 2 live caterpillars rescued :)
Traffic - 21 cars, 11 trucks (county roads), 1 motorcycle, 6 bikes, 9 pedestrians, 7 parked cars. County Roads were still doing maintenance work on the shoulders of the road, and had a few trucks and such around. PG&E were working at the Eldercroft intersection, or at least meeting there.
My observations of the day - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=any&on=2023-12-27&place_id=any&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
Terry's observations - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2023-12-27&place_id=any&user_id=teellbee&verifiable=any