Juvenile newts

Well I wasn't expecting this. I ended up in a different part of the forest than planned (due to the hunt   - thank goodness it's the end of the season). So I went to see how a puddle of tadpoles was doing (very well, thank you), and spotted a shape. A newtish shape



It's incredibly hard to get any sort of shot of something lurking in the mud in a dirty puddle, so I apologise for the image quality but I'm pleased to have go anything. But then as I looked, I noticed something moving, and there were 2 more emerging from their leaves.



One brand new, just emerged juvenile newt. It looked rather shocked at its new world.

Got to love a newt!

Very cool! I think I've only seen a newt once in my life; we have more salamanders where I am.

No more photos but a quick update. We checked the newt 'pond' (in fact a storm rain run-off ditch) and it is just full of newts. There are several of these ditches along the same track but no evidence of newts in any of the others. This one, though, is teeming. We must have seen maybe 15 or so, and there are certainly more than that.

Not good news for the tadpoles, though. None left that we could see. I guess it's just very bad luck that the frog spawned in the same ditch as the newts.

These ditches will all dry out at some point but we've had plenty of rain to keep some, including the newt one, topped up, so fingers crossed they will be ok until it's time to venture onto dry land.