great crested newts How do i see them?

[lizard orchid]

As a number of people have mentioned on here joining your local reptile and amphibian group would be a good way to get training and go out with someone with a GCN license. Some people have a license to cover bottle trapping, a useful technique especially with very weedy ponds that even make torching very difficult at times.
Someone also mentioned on here waiting till a bit later to check the pond you mentioned for GCN's. Yes, agree with this as more GCN's will turn up and April is a good time. At the moment a few GCN's here in Northamptonshire have started to move back to their breeding ponds so there might be a few about but later on into March/April more should have appeared which would be a similar situation near you.
Back in 2009 I checked the local ponds after dark in August to record the numbers of GCN tadpoles. These swim out in the open water. It was a new experience for me recording these but it worked out well.

Brian Laney, Northamptonshire county recorder for reptiles and amphibians.

[lizard orchid]

Dear All,
James Grundy has done an excellent colour book on the three native species of newt we have in the UK including the GCN's. There are pictures of the egg stage, followed by the tadpole stage as it develops each week/month through the season as well as the adult. There is also a lot of useful information.
I have never seen a publication like this before and it is well worth getting.
The website is newtsinyourpond.com

Brian Laney, Northamptonshire county recorder for reptiles and amphibians.

[dampflippers]

Froglife sell another excellent book- the Great Crested Newt Handbook for only £2 plus £1 p&p.
Much of the info also applies to other newt species and there's lots about ponds and habitat. Alot of it is relevant if you intend to train for a licence eventually.

[Kayleigh]

On a warm summer day if you sprinkle some dried bloodworm(available from pet shops and aquatic centres) on the water after about an hour the newts will come to top to feed as the bloodworm floats I do this on mine to photograph them..
Mine are the smooth variety..

[froggy]

The newts also love to eat worms. I have smooth newts in my pond and most evenings last summer I would go to the pond and feed them worms, after a few days they became quite tame and would just sit and wait to be fed.

[nightshade]

One of the delights of my youth was laying and dropping worms into a pond then watching the Newts chomping, golden days how sorry I feel for children who only have gadgets

[Dragonyka]

I remember finding newts in the puddles in the fields near to our house when I was younger. We were fascinated and could quite clearly see them as the puddles were mere inches deep and clear as glass. Unfortunately, those fields are all houses now .

Thinking about it now, those puddles probably came and went with the tide (we were barely a metre or so above sea level at high tide) so I wonder where they went when the puddles disappeared... hmmm...

[lesleyb]

thank you all for your info and ideas. I am looking into local groups, it would be good to offer my pond to someone interested - mutually beneficial i think.

will keep you posted on progress.

thanks again
lesley

[lesleyb]

hi. just wanted to update all of you who were kind enough to give me advice.

I have contacted the local Amphibian group and the gentleman concerned has visited my pond. He tells me that there is unlikely to be any newts in there as the pond is too overgrown and nothing is growing in it. The pond will benefit from having some of the trees removed close to it to give it light, also to be cleared. I am hoping that a group of volunteers will help clear it of rubbish once its dried out (which it does every summer) and we are arranging to have the surrounding trees culled and trimmed. I am told that wildlife will most likely find its way back to the pond once it has life and light again.

So i thank you all for your advice and promise to report back with progress. I may get to see GCNs yet!

lesley

[dampflippers]

Have you joined the local ARG group Lesley?
Why not ask if you can help with some newt surveys, then at least you will get to see some.
Did the man who visited come at night with a torch or just daytime?
(by the way, which part of the country (roughly) are you in?)