Smooth newt (young one)

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Words

I find it easier to photograph them at night when they're more likely to come to the surface. Nice to have them in your pond. The very young newts have gills, and are very small.

Another cracking shot Words.

[vole-woman]

I've just posted some newt pics on my blog (after checking the archive I decided the Gallery had enough smooth newt images so I haven't added mine). But my question is, why are some common newts spotty, and others not? Is it a pattern that comes and goes with the breeding season, or do these newts, like common frogs, just come in different colours?

[vole-woman]

The newt on my blog is so spotty he's like a leopard! Not at all like the image on the name-link page.

[Words]

The spotting becomes much more apparent in the breeding season. A bit like teenage acne

[Words]

Originally Posted by dampflippers

How did you do that without getting reflections, Words??

I'm fairly close 12-18 inches when I take those. It depends a bit on the angle, so it's trial and error but with the flash externally mounted it's generally far enough away to avoid getting reflections if the camera is angled slightly. Shots directly at the water tend to to reflect badly.

[vole-woman]

Thanks, Words.

I've called the all-four-legs-but-still-gills stage an 'eft' on my blog, but I think that might be incorrect?

[djackso]

I would have thought you were right, but this is a definition I found on the net:
eft: the terrestrial stage of a newt’s life cycle; a newt is a type of salamander belonging to Family Salamandridae; some newts begin life in the water, go through a terrestrial (eft) stage, then return to water as aquatic adults

[dampflippers]

The Smooth Newt - Lissotriton vulgaris
The Herpetological Conservation Trust (British)

" Like frogs and toads they have a tadpole stage; a newt tadpole is called an eft. Unlike frogs and toads, the tadpoles of newts develop their front legs before their back legs. Newt efts breathe through external feathery gills which sprout from behind the head."

But there are also websites tha say as you do that it is the juvenile terrestrial stage.

I'm confused now because I thought it referred to any newt tadpole.
Hmmm!

[whis4ey]

and here am I just learning as I read