Smooth Newt

[JamesT]

Another not-so-great quality shot from the pond, but a record shot of a first.

I'd just been carefully scraping some of the duckweed off (to avoid disturbing the frog spawn) and saw this fellow. There were at least two, but I couldn't get the phone to focus, and by the time I had got a proper camera one had hidden.

[Clicker]

That's great news  that newts are inhabiting  your pond James ... I wish I knew if they were inhabiting the  pond  at the bottom of our  garden  where the frogs have been  congregating   but it's  about 4 foot deep  and 30 foot wide  so I cannot tell ... It is a good feeling to get at least a for the record  shot of something seen for the first time isn't it .... I felt like that with the Merlin I caught on camera last week ....4 years after getting my first fleeting  glimpse of it !

GOOD LUCK with spying it again when  the  CAMERA is nearer to hand  !

[JamesT]

Yes, it's easier in a small pond, mine's only about 1m² and maybe 40cm deep at the deep end. That was about a much as I could manage with a mattock and a shovel.

[Clicker]

Well just goes to show ... size  doesn't matter ... you must be really pleased to see that  you've created a habitat  for that little newt ...

[JamesT]

23 hours ago, Clicker said:

Well just goes to show ... size  doesn't matter ... you must be really pleased to see that  you've created a habitat  for that little newt ...

Indeed, it was an exciting moment. I dug the pond about three years ago, in the hope that the frogs that I often saw in the garden would use it (as they have), but had no expectation that they would be joined by newts.

[Paul]

We once had a single newt in our pond - wish we had more...   

Fine find James.

Paul.