18 Apr 20 - My Large Spring Visitors #BWKM0

One of the first things I did with the garden after I bought my house, was to dig a nice large pond. The previous owners had a wendy house for their kids. Fortunately, they were removing the wendy house as I was moving in, which saved me the hassle to get rid of it. This left me with a big patch of bare ground & a lot of long rank grass. A nice large pond was the best way to start sorting that mess out. I refused to put the obligatory Goldfish or Carp in, as it was planned to be a wildlife pond. I expected the Frogs to find it & start breeding. Frustratingly, while there are often one or two Frogs in the pond, they have never bred. After a few years, the Smooth Newts found the pond and are generally visible, especially at night. I was very excited at the end of May 13, when I checked the pond & found my first Great-crested Newt. Numbers at this time of year are always tricky to count, as they generally are only visible after dark & are fairly shy. A few nights each Spring, I pop out with a torch after dark to count the Great-crested Newts. The peak count has been five in May 14 and two so far this year: but it's still early.

Great-crested Newt: Male (31 May 13)

Great-crested Newt: Male (18 Apr 14)

Great-crested Newt: Female (18 Apr 14)

Great-crested Newt: Female (9 May 15)

Like many kids of my generation, I got into wildlife by looking at Frogs, Tadpoles & whatever we could in some of the local streams in school holidays. This was several years before I started birdwatching. My interest in pond life have never left me & it's a real privilege been adopted by the local Great-crested Newts. I found out soon after I moved down to Dorset, that all three Newt species occur locally. I've got two species & I keep checked each year in the hope that a Palmate Newt or two will appear. That would be fantastic, but I'm not complaining with what I have.

Check tomorrow to see the next day's wildlife sighting at #BWKM0.

9 May 15 - They Are Back

I am pleased to see my Great-crested Newts are back in my pond again this Spring for their third year. I didn't see the first until early Apr. However, the pond was overrun with Canadian Pond Weed & I didn't removed most of it until early Apr. At that point, it was possible to get a better view into the pond & I quickly started seeing them. Therefore, they were probably lurking out of sight below the vegetation. So far I have see two males & a female, which compares to three males & two females from last year. Sadly, there is no evidence that they successfully bred last year, but I will keep looking. Only one photo, so far this year: this gorgeous female.

Great-crested Newt: Female

For comparison, here is one of last year's males which have a distinctive jagged crest.

Great-crested Newt: Male from last year for comparison (18 Apr 14)

26 April 14 - Great-crested Newt

Every few days I check out the Great-crested Newts in the pond. They are best seen after dark as they are fairly shy. Was really pleased to see I've now got 3 males & a female: which is a nice improvement on the single male of last Summer & the pair seen earlier this Spring. Couldn't resist a few more photos of my favourite garden resident.

Great-crested Newt: Male number 1. Males have a jagged crest

Great-crested Newt: Male number 2 with a female Smooth Newt showing how large the Great-crested Newts are compared to the other British Newts

Great-crested Newt: Male number 3

Great-crested Newt: Female. Females do not have the jagged crest of the males

Smooth Newt: Male. Males have a smooth crest along the full length in the breeding season & have clear unwebbed toes. In comparison, the male Palmate Newt (which I've yet to find in the pond) does not have the crest & has webbing black hind feet in the breeding season

2 April 14 - Garden Newts

At the end of May last year, I saw a male Great-crested Newt in my garden pond. This was my first record since digging the pond in August 96 as a wildlife pond (with no goldfish of course). He was around on a number of occasions until the start of Sept.

Male Great-crested Newt: The large size identifies it as a Great-crested Newt & the jagged crest identifies it as a male in breeding condition (photo taken May 13)

This year has been even more exciting as I have seen a pair on a couple of occasions in late Feb & late March, as well as singles on a number of occasions. They lay eggs in Feb & March so am hoping that I might see some young newts later this summer in the pond.

Male Great-crested Newt: The male a few days ago

It took near 10 years before the local Smooth Newts established themselves, but they are now very well established. Three years ago I ended up having to move the Smooth Newts to my other smaller front garden pond as my main pond liner had a serious hole which I has to replace, as I couldn't repair it. I moved 31 adult Smooth Newts. Once the main pond was up & running again they quickly moved back in.

Male Smooth Newt: Only half the size of the Great-crested Newt & without any of its bulk. The jagged crest identifies it as a male in breeding condition (photo taken June 10)

Surprisingly, the local Frogs have never bred in the ponds, despite being present in small numbers outside of the breeding season.