Newting with the kids

Took the kids on the pond at the back of my house
to see if we could catch some newts I was hoping
for a big male crested newt as they have a lovely
red/orange belly and are much bigger then the female
newts.





first we found this little female     






then after a lot of walking and lifting rocks we found another female





time for a rest  





Great fun I've not been newting since I was a kid it was a really
good couple of hours spent getting full of mud we ended up
with 3 females happy days     

I've added a bit of info on the common newt

Common newt

Amphibian

Triturus vulgaris

Common newts are olive green or pale brown with a bright orange, black spotted underside. In the breeding season males develop a wavy crest from their heads to their tails. They are widespread throughout mainland Britain.

Common newts are nocturnal and spend the day hiding under large stones or compost heaps. From mid-October they hibernate, emerging again in February or March. Males seek out females and entice them by wafting a glandular secretion.

The male drops a packet of sperm (spematophore) near the female, which she collects. A week or so later she lays up to 400 eggs on broadleaved aquatic plants. The larvae hatch, and during the next 10 weeks change completely, or metamorphose, into juvenile newts.

What does it eat?

On land it eats insects, slugs and worms. In the water they hunt insects, tadpoles, water snails and small crustaceans, such as shrimps.

When will I see it?

Usually in the spring and summer.

Where will I see it?

In and around the pond and bog garden. Outside the breeding season also in parks, farmland, woods, wet heathland, bogs and marshes.

Nice one Stevo   
Every day a school day   

Well done Stevo on a good nature trip with the kids and some great pictures. You have to be a bit carful these day catching some of these wild creatures and insects as a lot are protected and have to be handled only by licensed personnel.  
A shame when you think back to our childhood with the fun we had going birds nesting finding things in ponds and hedgerows. Falling in the ponds and falling out of trees.  Our children and grandchildren aren't able to do the same because of all the restrictions and rules in place these days. If they could have more days out like Stevo did it might just get them away for there computers. Between the age of 5 and 15 I was never at home always of doing something.
Well done Stevo you and Tim alike.  They probably learnt more in that one day than they have all last month.  

Loving this.

Taking my red belly out to get newt and vulgaris later   

Notbad wrote:

Taking my red belly out to get newt and vulgaris later   

Is that with your old mates Brahms and Liszt   

kirky's dad wrote:

Between the age of 5 and 15 I was never at home always of doing something.
 

Fighting those pesky Romans no doubt   

Time well spent mate well done, bought back some great memories

Logger wrote:

kirky's dad wrote:

Between the age of 5 and 15 I was never at home always of doing something.
 

Fighting those pesky Romans no doubt   

Not Romans just cowboys and Indians. John Wayne was my HERO!  

I heard a radio programme once where a journalist who had accompanied John Wayne on a plane reported how he (JW )had drunk a whole bottle of Tequila to himself and walked off the plane as sober as a judge where as the rest of his followers could hardly stand    

He was a man's man  

Logger wrote:

I heard a radio programme once where a journalist who had accompanied John Wayne on a plane reported how he (JW )had drunk a whole bottle of Tequila to himself and walked off the plane as sober as a judge where as the rest of his followers could hardly stand    

He was a man's man  

He'd have to be hard, his real first name was Marion

I used to love catching great crested and smooth newts as a kid many many happy days doing this

I used to fish a small pond at Rhosesmor for small rudd and crucian carp, occasionally caught a newt on the hook.

Rhod Lloyd wrote:

I used to fish a small pond at Rhosesmor for small rudd and crucian carp, occasionally caught a newt on the hook.

I've never caught one on rod & line do they fight well    

Not on 24KG gear!