I am so excited - I was gazing at the tadpoles in the pond this morning - as one does - and there was a newt!!!!
we havew one too found it today when cleaning fish pond (and 197 frogs as well - yes that many!)
so thats nearly 200 not counting however many are in the wildlife pond too.,....
How big are these ponds?
Newts are protected! My parents had them at their old house - loads of them, the kids used to play with them all the time and then release them but strictly speaking you shouldnt touch them at all. I love frogs! Havent seen any for ages and little tadpoles are sooo cute.
The Great Crested Newt is protected and it an offence to handle it, kill it or move it without a licence.
The Common/Smooth and Palmate newts are protected but to a lesser extent as it is possible to collect them but not to sell them.
The crested newt obviously has a crest running along its back and in the mating seson the underside of the male is brightly coloured orange/yellow.
I have at least six newts in my pond. Unfortunately I think they are all the common newt. I live in hope that the crested newt might find the pond as there are other ponds in the local forest with their own natural population of crested newts.
Newts come to ponds to breed. It is possible to watch the courtship dance. The eggs are laid singly and each is wrapped in a leaf. Afterwards the newts return to the land. Baby newts or efts are minature versions of the adults but with external gills. They are readily eaten by other water predators.
I love newts :) I had some in a little pond in my back garden when I was a kid and they had babies! Lovely little things :)
My mum was clearing out her pond the other week and found some newts, six of them I think. She was going to take them to a local pond but decided not to in the end, but didn't know what to do with them whilst she cleared the pond. ANy suggestions? And does she really need to get rid of the silt in the bottom? She inherited the pond and isn't really sure what to do.
Inherited as in, was at her new house when they moved, not been handed down through family generations!!
We actually had a newt wander onto our pond/plot last year... a pond nearby has newts and we are hoping they have colonised ours...
;D
Oh-oh - the cat's in trouble wiv da lawr then. We keep finding an odd leg or head here or there, mostly frog, but occassionaly one of the newts from the pond.
Last year our next door neighbours kids came round to return "our" newts that they found in a pile of old garden toys. OH ceremoniously put them back into the pond while I rounded up cat and locked her indoors. Wouldn't have done to expose them to too much carnage as a result of a good turn.
sally_cinammon - it may be worth your mum contacting the local wildlife trust for advice re newts and ponds generally :)
Quote from: greenscrump on April 11, 2007, 19:52:07
sally_cinammon - it may be worth your mum contacting the local wildlife trust for advice re newts and ponds generally :)
She's quite lucky in that she works for Welsh Water who have ecologist-type people and they lent her a book to work out what kind they were, but it didn;t really say what to do with them in your pond! I'll let her know about the wildlife trust, hadn't thought of that, thanks! :)