newts travelling problem!

[cresshead101]

i have spotted a few newts in our newly established pond,yay,i think they are the common species,they are very plain,and are a kind of brown colour.i live near edinburgh.how common are these,and how the heck do they move from pond to pond on those stubby wee legs?(our pond is surrounded by roads and concrete,although there is a dell and river nearby)
wow cant,get over the shock of how beautiful they are,like dragon/frog hybrid,and i just love their big paddley feet!

[Gill Catton]

They're fairly common, there are three species in this country and they can travel quite some distance! The great crested newt which is the largest one, very dark in colour and a bit warty can travel 500m from breeding habitat (ponds). All three species tend to be on land, only going to ponds to breed or perhaps when its dry. You do tend to get either palmate or smooth newts (they are both smalll brownish newts esp the females) though, they don't occur together in the same pond very often - though sometimes it does happen.

I remember someone saying to me that they prefer different water qualities, that the ph level (have you done that at school yet?) might make a difference as to which species will turn up in a pond...

[cresshead101]

ph...acidic or alkaline,right ?arrrgh,back to school!these newts were pretty big,a bit bigger than my thumb(round about!)it had a yellow belly,and the first one i saw was smaller than the second, mabye male and female?so they just kind of wiggle along?pretty dangerous,out in the open!i had an extremely guilty moment when i was walking along the canal and accidentally stepped on one...

[Gill Catton]

yes that's right regarding PH! There are two types of common newt. The palmate are generally smaller than smooth newts but smooth seem to vary quite a bit in size. Female palmate and smooth look very much the same yellowy brown on top and pale underneath and pink or pinky orange with spots, the key thing to look for are spots on the throat, present in smooth absent in palmate. The males are easier, the male smooth has a crest and in browny grey with lots of spots, the male palmate in brownish with no real crest and it has a filament on the end of the tail oh and he has webbed hind feet too.
Try going out at night to look at the pond with a torch, they tend to be more active at night so you might get a better view then.

oh and I trod on a toad once, you're not the only one with that kind of guilt

[Tursiops2]

I accidentally killed a frog with my binoculars once. I was out birding, and sat down for a while by a wood, with my bins out and the case on the ground beside me. I think a frog must have crawled into the case without my noticing, and I then put my bins away on top of it, because when I next took them out, out of the case also fell a very squashed and very dessicated frog. Most upsetting.
T2

[cresshead101]

i think it is a female palmate,and that i might have seen her twicepoor froggy and toad,theyve now officially gone to the great pond in the sky! will try the torch idea tonight,although ill have to wait for ages till it gets dark!is it true that the beam of the torch can make frogs/toads freeze like a statue?any suggestions for names for thefemale newt?(yes, i know its silly and off topic,but what the heck!

[dragonfly]

When I was a small lad many years ago now we used to go to pond at this time of year it always had newts but within afew weeks they would be gone until the following year they spend a lot of time on land only breeding in the water if your lucky they might breed next year then you will have newts for ever more

[cresshead101]

luckily they havent entirely exterminated my frog tadpole poulation,so they're safe for another yeari have seen newt tadpoles befroe but not in this pond.i really hope theycome back next year,dragonfly

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by cresshead101

i think it is a female palmate,and that i might have seen her twicepoor froggy and toad,theyve now officially gone to the great pond in the sky! will try the torch idea tonight,although ill have to wait for ages till it gets dark!is it true that the beam of the torch can make frogs/toads freeze like a statue?any suggestions for names for thefemale newt?(yes, i know its silly and off topic,but what the heck!

no it dazzles them but if they are in the water they hesitate but then quickly vanish!

as for names well the scientific name for a palmate newt is Triturus helveticus...... so what about helen - admittedly an odd name for a newt but I shouldn't think many newts have names at all - or at least as far as we know!!

[thunder]

It's getting a bit late for adult newts to be in the water now. Most have moved out. During our netting session at the beginning of the week we only found one adult Great Crested and one Smooth, but twenty two Great Crested newtpoles. Might be a later season further north of course.

henrya