I saw my first newt in my pond yesterday, whilst drinking my cuppa, when on pond watch. I think it was a last years juvenile. Like an elongated tadpole, crawling over the pondweed. One of the new fish has decided to try and have an unsuitable liaison with a different species of fish. The Comet spent all of its time chasing, nuzzling and bumping a Shubunkin, which did not want to know, spent all of its time evading the Comets unwanted attention. Talk about unrequited love! Delighted to see 3 Goldfinches on their feeder, a first in my garden.
Exciting @Joyce Goldenlily, did it have little frilly gills near its head, that would be a sign it’s a juvenile?
fyi comets and shubumpkins can breed so it might not end up that unrequited!
It was too far away to see details of the "thing", it appeared on top of the weed in the centre of the pond. I only realised it was there because I saw it move. Just a shiny, black, elongated tadpole as far as I could make out. The adult ones I have found were all Common Newts. My daughter has Crested Newts in her pond, lucky thing.
I did wonder if Comets and Shubunkins might cross breed. I don't feel quite so sorry for the Shubunkin now! It really looked harassed and fed up.
@Jellyfire - an update on the alpine newt situ from my neighbours:
A phd student has visited and taken samples from 13 of my
newts. She's gathering 90 samples altogether which will be sent to a
lab to be examined. They are doing a variety of tests including checking
for the disease which can be harmful to our native newts. If my newts
are found to have the disease, they will be treated not destroyed.
Apparently London zoo has recently had an outbreak and treated the
reptiles successfully. I also have native newts in my pond so they seem
to be happily co-existing.
I went along to an allotment open day a few weeks ago. There was a smal pond there that had dozens of palmate newts swimming around - I've never seen so many. The wildy pond was only maybe a metre across but was deep and had good cover around the edge. It made my heart sing to see such happy newty life, enjoying the wildy space.
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One of the new fish has decided to try and have an unsuitable liaison with a different species of fish. The Comet spent all of its time chasing, nuzzling and bumping a Shubunkin, which did not want to know, spent all of its time evading the Comets unwanted attention.
Talk about unrequited love!
Delighted to see 3 Goldfinches on their feeder, a first in my garden.
fyi comets and shubumpkins can breed so it might not end up that unrequited!
I did wonder if Comets and Shubunkins might cross breed. I don't feel quite so sorry for the Shubunkin now! It really looked harassed and fed up.
We used to go looking for them in the woods when we were kids, there were a few little ponds they lived in there.