A Murky Underwater Encounter

I was going to go out today as the weather was glorious again, reaching 20C by the tea time. I had ordered a couple of new plants for the pond which arrived in the post today and as they were bare root they needed planting ASAP. First I had to make a new ledge for them to stand on as they are marginals. To this end I put in a couple of old well weathered bricks and found a left over section of plastic fencing. With the plastic on top of the bricks it also made another shelter for any aquatic life.

As I was assembling this little lot I disturbed a newt.

From album

This one is paler than others I have seen in the pond. Amazingly after a few short minutes newt after newt came to examine what was going on. I know I saw five different ones and maybe a sixth. They really are doing well in there. As one approached its tail was curved right round. At first I though it was damaged but after examining the nearest brick it straightened out its tail.

A while later I saw the same thing happen again. As the newt approached one particular spot its tail became more and more arched forward along its body. The reason for this - another newt virtually hidden in the silt at the bottom of the pond. I guess this is either a defence mechanism or a show of aggression.

This murky sequence shows what was happening. The head of the second newt can just be made out on the right of the photos.



Eventually the hidden newt surfaced from the silt and each went its separate way.

By this time, nearly 1pm., I though I might as well pot up a few plants I had bought recently and save the trip out for another day.

For a short while I had a flower power dog. Bobby decided to walk through one of my dwarf weeping trees whose catkins were in full bloom. Good job he doesn't suffer with hay fever! A good roll in the grass got rid of most of it.