frogs, toads and newts,

[sbeau66]

I have a large wildlife pond with some goldfish in, it has been established for about 15 years now and it regularly has more frogs than i can count in it, it also has a small colony of toads as i see them mating in there,
Also I have a smaller deep pool which has no fish, just lilies, and in the spring many toads spawn successfully in there, last year i counted 8 mating pairs, and in this small pool a few pairs of frogs also were seen mating and tadpoles of both hatched in huge amounts.
But i have never seen a newt of any description in either pond.
I have read that you are more likely to get common newts in a pond than you are to get toads, so if this is true where are the newts? do I have them and just haven't seen them? and why do I have so many toads if they are difficult to establish?
There are no nearby water resouces and the nearest pond/river is about a mile and a half away, so i don't know where they came from in the first place.
I would be interested to hear your ideas/opinions on this,,,,,

[Dogghound]

Newts like weed rich ponds, they require hibernation sites out of the water and lots of dense cover. They tend to to spread as far/fast as toads and frogs. It may be a case of there not being any local to you. Newts dislike fish and the smaller species dislike deep water. Toads spend almost all of there time out of water and gardens tend to be good for these, however the pond quality is more important to newts as they spend more time there and dont often spread to far away from the pond. What sort of habitats do you have near you? are you suburban? village? urban?, Is there anything that may prohibit newt dispersal like high ground, fast rivers, large motorways near you?

[sbeau66]

I'm in a rural area with golf course one side (sadly no water on the golf course) and farmland the other side also adjacent to some deciduous woodland, the river test is some 2 miles away and I am separated from it by the A30, which is busy but only a trunk road, not a dual carriageway. This hasn't stopped the frogs and toads arriving so I am puzzled as to why no newts in all these years??

[Dogghound]

I think it may be due to there being no reason to disperse from their current locations. And as you say the lack of water between isolates your house from them. The woodland would be good if it has wetland. Your ponds should be relatively shallow with lots native vegetation and log piles and native plants around the pond with high invertebrate levels to stand a good chance. At the end of the day there may simply be no reason for them to move to your pond.

[Moonmoth]

I think if you got rid of your fish, you would have a better chance of enticing them in if they are around .