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, leads our annual Latino Conservation Week events, and is a vital part of the conservation team at San Diego Bird Alliance. She has been spearheading our research in Kendall-Frost Marsh through monitoring of the Endangered Ridgway’s Rail.
Kendall-Frost Marsh is a vital habitat for a variety of wildlife, including two endangered species: the Light-footed Ridgway’s Rail (LFRR) and the Belding’s Savannah Sparrow (BSS). This marsh is the last remaining coastal wetland in Mission Bay, representing roughly 1% (~40 acres) of the area’s pre-1940 wetland habitat. BSS is a non-migratory subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow, and is listed as endangered by the state of California. Our rails were considered endangered by USFWS in 1970. In the 1985 Light-footed Clapper Rail Recovery Plan, the goal was to have 800 breeding pairs in Southern California. This species was reclassified and renamed as the Light-footed Ridgway’s Rail (Rallus obsoletus levipes) in 2014.
The Light-footed Ridgway’s Rail is listed as a state- and federally-endangered species in both Mexico and the United States. It inhabits coastal wetlands from Southern California to Northern Baja California, Mexico. San Diego Bird Alliance (SDBA) and UC San Diego Natural Reserve System (NRS) have been working together since May 2023 to research and protect these endangered species and other wildlife that call Kendall-Frost Marsh home.
The LFRR are interesting and unique, but very secretive. This makes them difficult, almost impossible, to see at Kendall-Frost Marsh. If you listen carefully, you can probably hear them, but you’ll be very lucky to see one in this location.
Since May 2023, SDBA has been installing cameras in KFM to monitor the behavior of the Light-footed Ridgway’s Rail and other wildlife. The cameras view the inside of the covered rafts that UC San Diego NRS has been maintaining since the mid-1980s. These rafts are made of a platform, a frame anchoring it to the marsh surface, and a dome-shaped protective cover, giving 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 enough or dense enough at KFM to protect them. The rails rely on the cordgrass for shelter, nesting, and more, facing significant challenges in finding secure refuges.
Kendall-Frost Marsh has a total of 22 artificial platforms/rafts which provide a safe refuge for the rails.
As mentioned, in May 2023, Bird Alliance began installing wildlife cameras on these platforms to monitor the behavior of the Light-footed Ridgway’s Rail. Since then, SDBA has collected valuable behavioral data about the rails and other species that use the platforms. The goal of this research is to better understand how the rails interact with their environment, at what tides they use these platforms, what they need to thrive, and how coastal wetlands benefit rails and other species.
What has SDBA found so far?
Some of our key findings from cameras are:
The cameras have revealed that the platforms are not used exclusively by Light-footed Ridgway’s Rail. Other species, including BSS, raccoons, mice, crabs, sora, spiders, and marsh wrens have also been observed utilizing the platforms. However, the rails are the predominant users at 92% of the wildlife sightings.
Tidal Influence: Rails are observed using the platforms during both high and low tides. 75% of the time we see them on the platforms is during high tides.
Behavioral Patterns: The rails use the platforms for a variety of activities, including resting, eating, nesting, and sleeping. On June 11, 2024, we were thrilled to document the successful hatching of four baby rails on one of the platforms. Stay tuned for this year’s Light-footed Ridgways’s Rail 2024 season report and King Tides survey happening in December. SDBA will partner with UC San Diego NRS to do kayak surveys to document the utilization of the 22 rafts by the LFRR, sora, and other species.
To support the recovery of the Light-footed Ridgway’s Rail and other species, we are working on expanding tidal wetland habitat at Kendall-Frost Marsh through our ReWild Mission Bay project. Kendall-Frost Marsh is a tiny remnant of the wetlands, 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.
We invite you to learn more about the ReWild Mission Bay and discover how you can contribute to restoring the wetlands at Kendall-Frost Marsh. Your support is crucial for protecting these endangered species and helping to ensure that Mission Bay’s wetlands continue to play a vital role in the region’s ecosystem.
See our Action page and sign up for our Newsletter for more ways to get involved.
