merav's Journal

Could you post a spider from your home or your yard?
Spiders make great neighbors - they eat different insects and other invertebrates, and don't make a mess.

Today, try and find a squirrel in your yard or near your home, and post it to our project!

April 1st, 2020 (Wednesday) 9:30 am – 11:30 am: 0 live newts, 29 new dead newts, a few juveniles.
The weather was cold.
All newts observed today were new, as I removed everything last week. Today I also removed all newts but one from the road. I recorded the one that was left. I think it rained last over the weekend, and those 3-4 days that have passed were enough for some of the newts to dry completely. Some were already very difficult to remove from the road.
Other roadkills - some earthworms, millipedes, camel cricket, moth, snail, and a Western Skink. I also saw a live honey bee and a male honey bee on the road, and removed them.
Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.
Rainfall: (MTD: 0 in; YTD: 18.07 in). Data from - http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php
Traffic: 8 trucks, 24 cars (including County Parks maintenance pickup trucks), 8 bikes, 11 pedestrians.

While sheltering-in-place we can still enjoy nature!
I would like to invite all my local friends to join our new project - Meet Your Nature Neighbors! All you need to do, is make an observation around your home or within walking distance, and share it on our new project -
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/meet-your-nature-neighbors
Each day we will have a challenge - something you need to find that day. But feel free to add any observation you make around your home. Let's see how many species we can find!

Our nature neighbor today is a mushroom! Many different mushrooms can be found in the urban environment - try looking on rotting trees, on the ground under oaks, or in leaf litter. Go out and try to find one around your home!

Our nature neighbor today is an earthworm! During the weekend rains earthworms were everywhere, swimming on the sidewalks. Let’s see if we can still find them today!

April 7th, 2020 (Tuesday) 2:30 am – 4:30 pm: 23 new dead newts
The weather was nice, a bit cold. It rained constantly in San Jose from Saturday night till Monday afternoon.
All newts observed today were new, as I removed everything last week.
Other roadkills - some earthworms, a millipede, grasshopper, moth, caterpillar, honey bees, bumblebees, cicada, fly. I also saw a live honey bee on the road, and a fence lizard crossing the road, on the last curve before returning to the county park lot.
Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.
Rainfall: (MTD: 2.28 in; YTD: 20.35 in). Data from - http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php
Traffic: busy afternoon! no trucks, 51 (!) cars, 2 motorcycles, 30 bikes, 13 pedestrians.
The first county park parking lot (near the Jones trailhead) was closed, but the one in the middle of Alma Bridge Rd was open.
The creek near the lime kiln trail was running today, the first time this year! Last year it was running for a while, and newts were reproducing in it.

Our nature neighbor today is a dandelion! Dandelions are non-native plants that are very common in our lawns. They might be weeds, but they are important nonetheless - they are great nectar plants for bees!

Continuing on our Meet Your Nature Neighbors iNaturalist project, let’s try something new. Record a sound observation, then upload it via computer. Try to include a photo in your observation. Sound observations are great for birds and other animals that are difficult to photograph, but you can hear them easily. You can use “Voice Memos” or any similar app.

Learn how to add a photo or sound to an observation: https://vimeo.com/289168727

Our nature neighbor today is an ant! Take a photo of ants in your kitchen and in your yard. Do they look the same? Are they different from ants you might see in a natural habitat? To learn more about Bay Area ants, download a free ant flier from BioBlitz.club website