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earliest sighting????: |
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MORG Member Joined: 13 Aug 2003 No. of posts: 15  View other posts by MORG |
Posted: 06 Jan 2006 Clearing out one of my garden ponds this afternoon, I came accross a fully crested up male Triturus cristatus swimming around. They returned early last year, but although weve had a mild December, this seems rather early to me. Trouble is, Im going to be out there every chance I get now looking out for any more returning newts. Morg love punk-hate racism |
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Suzi Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 No. of posts: 860 View other posts by Suzi |
Posted: 06 Jan 2006 I finally got a pond in September last year so a bit late in the season for anything although a frog arrived within days and I think is hibernating in the mud. We have newts in the garden here so am hoping for some in there - not GCNs though. I would be so thrilled to see one of those in my pond. Not beyond the realms of possibility as I'm only 400yards from where one was found in a garden pond last year. They are supposedly rare round here (East Devon) but there are old marl pit/ponds in the vicinity and I don't expect a lot of surveying has been done for them in this area. Suz |
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GemmaJF Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 No. of posts: 2090  View other posts by GemmaJF |
Posted: 07 Jan 2006 Hi Morg, Last year we had a couple of smooth newts active in the pond in early January. I'll have to get out with a torch and see if they around this year. It seems some indivdual newts can be around at this time, but I've not seen male GCN or males of either of the other two species in full breeding dress this early. I kept a log of smooth newt sightings in our garden pond last year, it was interesting to see how from a couple of active females in January the numbers rose into the 30's by March. Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant |
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MORG Member Joined: 13 Aug 2003 No. of posts: 15 View other posts by MORG |
Posted: 15 Feb 2006 After what seems like a very long wait for more returns, it looks like the single male cristatus has at last been joined by another male cristatus, also theres a single male vulgaris swimming around in my smallest pond. Cant see any females as yet though.
Morg love punk-hate racism |
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MORG Member Joined: 13 Aug 2003 No. of posts: 15 View other posts by MORG |
Posted: 04 Jan 2007 Well they are back early again this year. First sighting in my garden ponds was the 2nd of January 2007. This sighting was one fully crested up T cristatus, so last night I spent some time out there pond watching and in one of my small gardens ponds I saw 3 male cristatus, 1 female cristatus[being persued by one of the males tail wafting, and a male T vulgaris. It looks like its back to pond watching every night from now on for me lol. Morg love punk-hate racism |
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armata Forum Specialist Joined: 05 Apr 2006 No. of posts: 928 View other posts by armata |
Posted: 04 Jan 2007 Very nice occupation though - we don't get caudata here but some quite interesting frogs and toads. I just love finding those little rain frogs (Breviceps) right out in the middle of sem-desert; enigmatic little devils. 'I get my kicks on Route 62' |
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Alan Hyde Senior Member Joined: 17 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 1416 View other posts by Alan Hyde |
Posted: 04 Jan 2007 Hi Morg, Two days ago I found a couple of last years baby frogs dead in the grass beside my pond. They looked kind of bloated so I cut them open. Inside each frog was a freshly eaten worm. It would seem that these two were confused on a mild day and fed , it must've killed them 
Speaking of foriegn frogs I have an Asian Foam nest frog here that I bought for scenting pinkies. I only intended on keeping him for a short while but have grown quite fond of his company. He's now been moved from a fauna box to a tank with complete set-up  O-> O+> |
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james4 Senior Member Joined: 13 Nov 2006 No. of posts: 466  View other posts by james4 |
Posted: 06 Mar 2007 seen them at my local woofds today. 2 of them at about 16:45 in shallow water. 6/3/07 http://ukreptiles.proboards55.com |
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MORG Member Joined: 13 Aug 2003 No. of posts: 15 View other posts by MORG |
Posted: 12 Jan 2011 A bit late returning this year, but it has been a terrible winter Ive spent the last few days clearing dead frogs out of my garden ponds[14 in all] that died during the big freeze, but these few days and nights of warmer weather have started the returns This is the lastest Ive seen returning cresteds since I started recording it though Morg love punk-hate racism |
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ben rigsby Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 No. of posts: 337 View other posts by ben rigsby |
Posted: 15 Jan 2011 apologies for quality. but hey, aquatic newts are hard to shoot for a beginner. 
heres all 3 sp of newt photographed today; 
Diversity. |
- earliest sighting???? |
