Karina Ornelas
Karina Ornelas is our Conservation Outreach Coordinator and a student at Arizona State University, majoring in Conservation Biology and Ecology. She has been an advocate for ReWild since 2019, has assisted the team with translating materials from English to Spanish to better connect with the Latino community, and is a vital part of the conservation team. She has been spearheading our research in Kendall-Frost Marsh through monitoring of the Endangered Ridgway’s Rail.
Kendall-Frost Marsh is year-round home to two endangered birds; one is the Belding’s Savannah Sparrow (BSS) and the other is the Ridgway’s Rail (RiRa). BSS is the non-migratory subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow, and is listed as endangered by the state of California. The Ridgway’s Rail is recognized as a full species distinct from the Clapper Rail, and is considered endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. San Diego Audubon Society, Renascence Inc. and the UC San Diego Natural Reserve System (NRS), have been working together on these endangered species and the other wildlife that call Kendall-Frost Marsh home. Ridgway’s Rail are especially interesting because they are so hard to see in Kendall-Frost Marsh; they’re very cryptic, and very rare. In the USFWS 1985 Light-Footed Clapper Rail Recovery Plan (this species was reclassified and renamed in 2014), the goal is to have 800 breeding pairs in Southern California. The 2023 southern California rail survey results were just released, and it shows that in 2015 there were 33 pairs of Ridgway’s Rails in Kendall-Frost Marsh (KFM).
In 2019 they declined by 2 pairs and as of 2023 there are 10 pairs. Since May we have installed four cameras in KFM to monitor the behavior of the Ridgway’s rails and other wildlife. The cameras view inside the covered rafts that UCSD has been maintaining since the mid-1980s. These rafts, comprising a platform, a frame anchoring it to the surface, and a dome-shaped protective cover, give the rails a safe and dry place to rest or nest during high tides. These are essential because the vegetation, especially cordgrass, is not tall or dense enough anymore for the rails to find refuge from predators or as a sturdy framework around which they would normally make their own floating nests.
On August 29, 2023 the U.S Fish and Wildlife Services, Living Coast Discovery Center, City of San Diego and San Diego Audubon released seven captive-bred and banded Ridgway’s rails from Living Coast Discovery Center at Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve, adding to the population of 10 pairs estimated from the 2023 survey. Since then, we have spotted four of the banded rails using three of the rafts, apparently noticing and responding to the camera. Using video footage, we can confirm that the Ridgway’s Rail, at least four that were released recently, are still in the marsh, adapting well to their new home. These cameras are giving us a wealth of knowledge about rail behavior and raft usage that we didn’t have before.
In these past months, we have seen that the rails use these rafts for a place to rest and eat when the tide is high. In our records, most of the time (77%) the rails are using the rafts when the tide is from 4ft-6ft above mean low low water. Our data so far have shown that they use the rafts mostly in the late afternoon. From 3 pm to 9 pm, they can spend from 10 minutes to 4 hours inside just lying down, looking for food or resting but alert–seems like a nice place for them to rest!
Kendall-Frost is home to a lot of other wildlife, too. While monitoring the cameras we have seen crabs, raccoons, mice, Belding’s Savannah Sparrow, spiders and insects. This year, the cameras were not out early enough to observe nesting on the platforms; we saw nesting materials but not active nests. We hope to continue monitoring the platforms and hope that next year we get some photos or videos of the rails with chicks! During the summer, biologists found three hatched eggs on one of the artificial platforms without a camera, so there are some new chicks in the marsh.
We are also partnered with Renascence Inc., an Indigenous-led nonprofit focused on reconnecting Kumeyaay Native Americans to the coastal lands, including in and around Mission Bay and its wetlands. This year, Renascence is leading a project to share Kumeyaay stories and their connection to the bay and wildlife. One part of this project is the creation of a coloring book that will showcase Mission Bay and Kendall-Frost Marsh wildlife through their own eyes. Giving our coastal animals their own perspectives and voice is an important way of acknowledging their relationship to us, and is a perspective used in many Kumeyaay stories. Another part of the project is to learn more about Kumeyaay song cycles and share knowledge. Partnering with Audubon CA, we will work with Renascence and other Indigenous partners to create an ArcGIS StoryMap based on where the song takes place. We can’t wait to share more information about this project.
In the future, we are working hard to expand the tidal wetland habitat at Kendall-Frost Marsh through our ReWild Mission Bay project. As the Rail survey report has stated for many years, the rails would benefit from restoring substantial wetland acreage in Mission Bay. Kendall-Frost Marsh is a tiny, remnant, wetland, the ecological memory of what Mission Bay used to be, but it has huge potential to help the rails recover as the heart of restored wetland and native habitat acreage.
Learn more about what you can do to help restore the wetlands at Kendall-Frost Marsh for our endangered species on our action page.
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