Newts!

Oh dam I missed gardeners world tonight I can't believe it

 

It's on again tonight 5pm beeb 2

 

They take every precaution ....



That magpie better be able to fly fast!!!

 

They are very cute! Is @Lolimac's one pregnant? I missed Gardeners World as well but I usually catch up with it on the ipad in the bath on Sunday night, it's my indulgent treat.

 

Phew, glad I didn't know that when we were digging out our eye bed! We kept finding newts - little ones, hiding between the rubble as we removed it. About 3-4 inches long, v dark green/black, but with a flash of orange-red on the belly. I think they were great crested? I was forever picking them up and moving them to somewhere safe. We have to do the same with the frogs and toads, if we want to go down into the cellar to get some wine. The alternative is standing on them!
Then again, I will always remember my first morning in this house. We'd moved in on the first day of a heat-wave, after about 2 months of solid rain. Doors had obviously been open all day, with removal men coming and going. 4 am the first morning, I was downstairs (too excited to sleep!) unpacking boxes in the kitchen, and I noticed a movement by the dogs' water bowl....
....one tiny froglet! (Standard blue Ikea dog-bowl, for those in the know)

They still try to come in, if we leave the door open!

 

There must be a way around this..... withdraw something or other.

 

On the way back from our evening walk on Thursday we stopped by our village pond to see how it had fared over the winter and after a few minutes I spotted a small female newt and seconds later we spotted what looked like a six inch dinosaur type newt which had a white streak in the very end of its tail.We wasn't sure exactly what it was as it moved so quickly into the weeds so after counting about twenty of a least two different types went home and did a Google and low and behold this male dinasaur looking newt is indeed a Great Crested Newt

I sent off an email to a local wildlife trust in Northampton while Mr Kandy sent off an email from his laptop to another wildlife person.We both have had replys although my replys just directed me to more identification sites plus there was some Jargon regarding what you can and can't do to them.

Anyway,on the way back from visiting Mr Kandy dad in the care home we drove past our village pond only to see three youngsters with bandy nets and a bucketWe quickly drove home and parked the car and I walked back to the pond to confront the youngsters and was told they did indeed have half a bucket ful of these mixed species newtsI quickly explained to them about the law regarding the newts so one lad picked up his leaking bucket and gently poured them back into the pond.By this timeMr Kandy arrived and he also explained to the lads that they could get into trouble for disturbing them.I think we put the wind up them a little bit

Back home we rang the chap called Brian who had replied to Mr Kandys email and he wants us to send him a photo of the GCNand he is going to pop over to see us when he Can and to identify the newts for recording purposes

Mr Kandy is just downloading the photos we took this morning and is going to send Brian a nice clear photo to confirm what we have seen.Good job we emptied the pond of the 300+Goldfish that some one had dumped in it a few years ago and had bred as evidently goldfish are partial to the babies of newts

We are chuffed that we have such a rare creature in our pond and they must have travelled miles to get to the pond