Crested newt habitat

[treecreeper]

This afternoon I visited one of the newt ponds in North Wales. Thought I'd post a picture. It has great crested and palmate newts. It's in a disused quarry and is so far unspoilt



TC

[dmclean2]

Hi TC,
That looks like a very nice place to do a newt study on, see if your local wildlife group has a count going on and if not you could offer to do it and it would help them to know how many are there and which species thrives most in the pond,
Duncan

[treecreeper]

Hi Duncan,
I think that might have been done. Just after I took the photo I encountered a lady walking round the edge and found she was looking for newts, having been told by a very active local naturalist that there were crested newts present. The only other time I have seen anyone at the pond was a few years ago when I met a local man with his daughter. He proudly told me he had released two koi carp into it!! I have not seen evidence of fish, and the newts are still there, so hopefully the carp have perished.
TC

[dmclean2]

I can't understand people like that TC,
they interfere with nature in the strangest of ways sometimes,
Like you, I hope they are no longer there,
Duncan

[Bullseye]

I used to work for a water company,we had three small lagoons all next to each other that were not used,all had been overtaken by wildlife,two had common frogs and smooth and palmate newts breeding in them,the third had only GCN in it,marsh frogs also in all three.All were identicle !,yet only GCN in no 3 !.One day some tw*t drained no3 for no reason just after the GCN had spawned,I rescued as much as possible,took it home set up a 4ft aquarium,(oh no,no license !,this was one occasion where common sense overuled the law !),couple of weeks later,lots of GCN taddies,soon learned to take frozen bloodworm and daphnia.Released some into local ponds,kept a few in the tank,handy tip,keep them very well fed or they turn on each other !,from a very early age they are voracious !!!!.Warning,what I did was illegal,but many dozens of newts survived and went back into the wild,and yes I'd do it again.Again all three lagoons looked the same but GCN in only no3 ?.

[dmclean2]

Bullseye,
What you dne in relation to the bloke releasing the Koi Carp is worlds apart
your rescue bid I applaud, and I praise you for your speedy response to a near catastrophe,
Well done you,
and you are right in saying that some times the law has to be put to one side in an instance of the survival of a species,
Duncan