?out of water?

Can you have a newt without water? I think I disturbed one while weeding earlier. It was about 2 1/2 - 3 inches long, had front legs and back legs like a small lizard. No water anywhere near (though I am experimenting with "pond" in plastic trug about 50 ft away) When I moved it out of forking range it just froze, no movement. Should I have put it nearer "pond" maybe? I've had frog and toad spawn before with large pond in London, but newts are unknown quantity to me.

 

They'll happily live in the grass and plants, they need water to spawn but otherwise they're not too bothered.

 

Thank you, it would be so lovely to get something spawning in the trug next spring. I looked where it had previously "frozen" when I ventured back out after thunderstorm, but it had moved on.

 

In far off days (my childhood) when newts were far more numerous we would find them in our garden which was about 250m from the nearest water.

 

We used to catch them when we were children and "examine" them.

Fast forward to last year ... one of my hens decided to do just that (except "examining" wasn't on her mind! ) Managed to get it off her and put it back in the sedge by the pond side.

Crested newts are a protected species

 

Sounds like a Palmate Newt, been turned into one of them by the ex more than once

 

As said above, Newts only need water to breed ( March /April) they will feed on small invertebrates for the rest of the year apart from during hibernation.