unknown eggs in pond

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by chattycaff

Ill be interested to see what they turn out to be they dont look like newt eggs to me. The round shape, the structure i.e. jelly proportion to embryo, the jagged edge just isnt right IMO, doesnt even look like its stuck to the side of the pond/algae. Ive never found/seen/heard of free floating newt eggs.

[Deb London]

Smooth Newt egg for comparison. Very tiny and hard to spot.

[chattycaff]

Originally Posted by Deb London

Smooth Newt egg for comparison. Very tiny and hard to spot.

wow.. thanks for the pic... so similar looking.. i cant get close enough for a better pic... there stuck all along the side of the pond.. attached to weed.. and also amongst the rocks and dead leaves.. gonna go an investigate further and see if i can get a better pic of a clutch of them

[Deb London]

As an idea for the scale, look at the reflection. The egg was close to the surface, the camera lens is reflected, and the lens is a small one.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Ill be interested to see what they turn out to be they dont look like newt eggs to me. The round shape, the structure i.e. jelly proportion to embryo, the jagged edge just isnt right IMO, doesnt even look like its stuck to the side of the pond/algae. Ive never found/seen/heard of free floating newt eggs.

When they are in blanket-weed they can look just like this, they are just stuck to single fibers of the weed sometimes they're wrapped up sometimes they're not. In a ditch with very little aquatic veg I found one small clump of crowfoot and it was soooo stuffed with smooth newt eggs that it resembled frogspawn. You could barely identify individual eggs - obviously the developing baby newts were separate but the jelly was one big mass. Something I'd never read about nor come across before or since.

It could be pellets perhaps, were the pellets small and round? I'd just want to be really cautious about removing them if in doubt perhaps remove one and see if its a crumbly centre (like a pellet) or more solid like a developing newtpole (newtpole not a real word btw) Or remove them into a tank.

Definitely an idea of scale would help.

[GCN lova]

sometimes, if there is not enough vegetation, newts will just lay their eggs on the pond's bottom or anywhere really.