A Newt Comes Calling

I was locking up last night when I noticed a young newt by the back door. It was very obliging and waited while I grabbed the Nikon and took a few photos:







This one was not quite fully grown and I assume one of the offspring from the newts which live in the garden pond.

Spring on Hold

The bit of warm weather was short lived. Plenty of gusty cold wind and temperature back to single figures for much of the time. That didn't stop the frogs which continued to produce their spawn:



It looks as though there are about sixteen lots in the garden pond. This should continue to develop when the temperature starts to rise again.

When I was checking through the video clips I took of the newt attacking the first batch of frog spawn I could see there were two of them. A male and a female:



The male with his light coloured belly with black spots can just be see towards the top right of the clip which I have slowed down.

Spring Jelly Babies Under Attack

I've been checking my pond daily for a while on the look out for the first sign of frog spawn. None this morning but on returning from our afternoon walkies there it was. The first batch this year. I could see movement nearby and what looked like a webbed foot. I though it was a frog and fetched the 70D to take some shots and maybe some video:



Imagine my surprise when I eventually made out the shape of a newt:



After observing the activity for some time it became obvious that the newt was attacking the frog spawn as it probably thought it had found an easy meal:



To me that appears to be a female newt and she looks fairly fat so she may have seen the frog spawn as a rival to any she may be ready to lay. I will have to keep a sharp look out as I have never seen any newt spawn in the pond though there are at least five residents.

It is easy to tell which spawn is which as that from frogs makes a tightly packed clump in shallow water as in the photos above. Toads lay their spawn in strings usually wrapped around vegetation in slightly deeper water and newts lay individual eggs on submerged plant leaves.

I have never noticed this activity in the past though it could well have happened every year. It looks as though the spawn was quite a difficult meal to grab hold of and as the pond usually ends up with several batches of frog spawn there should still be some tadpoles and froglets later in the year.

You Never Know ....

..... what you will find hiding in the garden. There really is a lot more wildlife than we might imagine. Yesterday a new water feature arrived and it prompted me to start tidying up part of the garden which had been neglected for a couple of years. That meant removing grass and buttercups which had gone rampant.

As I moved some disused containers, pots and such like there was plenty of life under them, usually slugs, worms and spiders. I know there are quite a few frogs of various ages and sizes which rest in damp shady spots so wasn't surprised to see this one:



I often see one jump out when mowing near the borders of the lawn. What was a suprise was to find a young Smooth Newt under one of the containers.





There have been newts in the garden pond for years and I assumed they would be breeding there but look as I might had never once seen any spawn, tadpoles or young newts, only adults,  so this was the first hard evidence that they are breeding. I would think this youngster is about half to two thirds full size.

Even after a tidy up there are still lots of dark, damp places left where it can find a safe home. And the water feature:



Most of the clutter and grass seen behind it has been removed. I am hoping it will attract birds to drink and give me some more photo opportunities.

Friday at the Flicks - GT Babies, Newt, Penny and Monty

I don't know what happened to the baby which left the nest a couple of days ago. No evidence seen of a parent feeding anything outside the nestbox. My feeling is that it was too impatient. The remaining five are thriving and being well fed. This short video clip was taken yesterday from my six inch monitor using the iPhone4:



Sad news from the nest this morning. It looks as though one of the chicks has died. It was probably the runt and couldn't compete for food well enough and the change in the weather with temperatures suddenly shooting up won't have helped. I have switched off the internet video feed. Another must have fledged and the remaining three chicks are exercising their wings. One stood in the entrance for a short while so they should be fledging soon.

Near the beginning of Spring I spotted five newts all showing at the same time in the garden pond. Yesterday was the first time lighting conditions were right this year to take a short video of one:




Penny continues to settle in to a routine though she is an early bird. What she needed was a comfort toy, especially as she kept swiping one of my towels. This is Penny on her first meeting with Monty the Moose. As it has two noise makers inside I have kept an eye on how she treats it. If she starts to tear it apart then I will have to replace it with a silent one. So far she loves making it 'grunt' otherwise she treats it ever so gently, sometimes taking it to bed with her.



A photo of Penny with Monty the Moose:


Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you or with your own special animal companion.

Food Glorious Food

When I think about it most wildlife seems to spend a large part of its time just looking for food. Here are some of those which came looking yesterday.

Blue Tit and Starlings
   

House Sparrow
   


Coal Tit


Bumble Bee


Smooth Newt


 Of course, once it had started to get dark, the Hedgehogs arrived. They turned up as I was clearing up in the kitchen and I decided to watch them for a while only to end up being fascinated for the best part of half an hour filming them with the camcorder set to night vision. It would appear that the charging we have seen has more to it than meets the eye at first glance. It seemed to me that what I was watching was part of the mating ritual. I will have to spend some time extracting what I can from the video as the camera was having difficulty focussing and the hogs kept moving where there were obstructions to vision.

Later:
All things being equal there should be some video of the Hedgehogs for Friday at the Flicks tomorrow.

Friday at the Flicks (Greenfinch Family, Bathing Starlings, Newt Eating)

The Greenfinch family have visited a couple of times and on the second occasion I was able to take some video of them. Mother and youngster were at the seed feeder while father stayed nearby keeping watch in case the rowdy gang of Starlings returned.



The Starling families are here several times a day. I don't have to see them to know they are about as the sound of hungry juveniles can be deafening. One thing that can be said about Starlings - they keep themselves clean and can be found bathing in any available water, no matter how small the container.



Once I have given the tadpoles their daily ration of Koi floating sticks I sometimes put a few in the main pond for the fish. One day to my surprise I spotted a Smooth Newt helping itself to a piece which had been missed by the fish.



It took about five minutes to devour the whole stick and it was fascinating to see the way it would slowly approach its quarry and then make a lunge.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Friday at the Flicks (Robin, Blackbird, Newts)

During the really cold weather the Robin was usually the first bird to appear in the garden but until recently it seemed to have been missing. Maybe it couldn't get a look in with all the corvids and Starlings milling around. The other morning it managed to find a clear slot.



Quite a few birds use my nursery pond as a drinking place and I have seen a Blackbird pick out pond snails to eat. Now it had decided that the floating Koi sticks I use to feed the tadpoles also make a tasty snack.



The sudden increase in temperature recently has warmed up the garden pond and several of the resident Smooth Newts are now evident.



Have a great weekend enjoying the sights and sounds of the wildlife around you.

Newts

Now the Sun has been shining and the water in my garden pond is warming up the Smooth Newts are to be seen cruising through the water.





I have seen up to four in view at the same time so I know a decent number of them survived last winter's harsh conditions. I also managed to take some video which will be available tomorrow.

Watch Where You Are Treading at Night

When Bobby goes for a wander round the front garden at night I always carry a torch. There are a few areas round the building where there is no light. I am mainly on the lookout for slugs and snails so I can avoid treading on them. Last night as we approached the side gate to the front garden I spotted a dim shape on the path which on investigation turned out to be a Common Newt. I had stopped carrying a camera with me since the Hedgehogs stopped visiting so dashed inside to grab one.

I expected the little fellow would have vanished by the time I got back but my luck was in. There it was in exactly the same position and it stayed there while I took a few photos.





I think a combination of the mild weather recently and the heavy rain earlier in the evening meant that this Newt had decided to see what food might be available. It was a fairly young one measuring about 7cm. A bit under 3 inches long. Even with the flash it was fairly well camouflaged, blending in well on the concrete slabs.

When we went out for a final look round about an hour later there was no sign of the Newt anywhere. Maybe it was on its way to the pond in the back garden. That was the direction it was facing when I first saw it.

The Waiting Game and a Loud Snuffle

Yesterday was that day most motorists dread - MOT day! It was a question of dropping off the car at 8.30 a.m. for that and a full service and then staying within earshot of the phone, just in case..... I put the phone in the kitchen where I could hear it and spent some time in the garden. Another waiting game was by the pond waiting for anything interesting to appear as I had the camcorder on its tripod at the ready. Not a lot of activity all told but a few episodes made their way on to the DVD.

Three appearances of a Common Newt
A Giant Pond Snail
A Dunnock watching from a small tree just feet away from me
Some miniature bullrushes waving in the breeze
A bee visiting an Iris growing as a pond marginal.



A better view of the Iris which has opened so rapidly as it was just a bud two days before. This is the same Iris but different cameras record different shades of colour!



It was impossible to film a Waterboatman as they were darting about everywhere so I had to make do with a sill photo. You can clearly see the elongated legs it uses to scull across the water as it lives its life floating on its back.



For those who have been following the progress of the juvenile Blackbird - it continues to spend many hours in and around my garden. It has become my one ally in trying to keep the noisy Starlings at bay. This is especially so with the ground feeder. I have often seen this young bird chase adult Starlings away.



At long last I managed to get a sound recording of Henry doing his snuffling act. Last night both Hedgehogs appeared at the same time on the paved area. Honey spent a lot of her time moving backwards as Henry grabbed most of the mealworms and crushed peanuts I had scattered.

Later on when Bobby went out for his last tour of the gardens he had his usual careful listen round and then went over to the side fence near the conservatory. He had heard Henry who was the other side of the fence amongst the weeds. In fact both Hedgehogs were there and I could only see Honey but Henry could be heard quite clearly. Luckily I had the Sony mp3 recorder in my shirt pocket so I crouched down, with Bobby looking over my shoulder to see what I was up to, and managed to get the recording. I have added that sound to the bit of compilation video of them both last night.



More photos and video of hedgehogs can also be found on Shirl's Gardenwatch. Some lovely colour footage has just been added along with video of various young birds.

Oh, yes, the car did pass its MOT so that is over for another twelve months. I had thought briefly of trading in my eleven year old Mitsubishi Carisma for a new car but from what I have seen on various consumer programmes and what the garage owner was telling me about some of the new cars he looks after I am better off with my reliable, well built oldie. After all, it is only just broken in as it hasn't done 60,000 miles yet!

Around My Pond

Enjoying the warmth after a lovely beef carvery at a local hostelry this lunchtime I browsed the pond in my garden. I spotted one of the Common Newts so I fetched the camcorder but didn't think I had time to set up the tripod. Needless to say as soon as I got the camcorder lined up it spotted me and disappeared into the sludge at the bottom of the pond. While I hung around I spied the first damsel of the season - one of the blues but it only stayed a few seconds this time.

I hung around and was rewarded by the newt coming back to the surface a few times so I managed, for the first time, to get some somewhat shaky hand held video. In the later part of the video you can see the large back feet and the spotted belly quite well.



Just as I decided that the newt was going to disappear and I might as well put things away again I saw something splashing about in the little waterfall at the opposite end of the pond. A Blue Tit was having a good old wash and brush up. I had only been thinking the other day that I had never seen a Blue Tit bathe and here one was. Again - hand held and I've cut out the worst shakes and slowed the action by a quarter to make it a little easier on the eyes. There are two visits to the waterfall in a short period of time but I'm not sure whether it is two birds or the same one.



The waterfall is very popular with the birds. This I can tell as there are always water splashes over everything near it! I keep promising myself that I will set up the camcorder, on a tripod, one day and see how many different birds use this facility.

Birds, Hedgehogs and a Newt

What a miserable morning yesterday. Just started to rain as we got back from the morning walk and it continued until just after midday. Not heavy rain, just enough to gently water the garden. It needed it as large cracks were appearing in some areas. Once the rain had stopped I set about changing the camera I had used to observe the Hedgehogs. After a bit of experimenting I ended up using a black an white one with built in infra red lighting. The cover says colour but the camera is b/w. Also I took the opportunity to mount it closer to the place where the Hedgehogs have been appearing.



If you want to see the results then read on or scroll down.

In the garden the birds have been grabbing food as though it is going out of fashion. Several times I have seen blackbirds with beaks filled with grubs. Often they will put the whole lot down while they get another tasty morsel and then pick all the originals up again.

How many grubs can you get in one beak - there are still a couple to pick up.



It is not often I see both Blue Tits at the same feeder. Here the one at the back is holding a Sunflower heart with both feet and pecking pieces off.



As usual the Starlings cause mayhem continually barging in. Here a couple are changing over.



Another has decided it is bath time. Yes - that is my nursery pond but who am I to argue with a determined Starling. BTW I was right about the Frog Spawn. It was not viable and not one started to develop. Oh well, better luck next year.



Nobody can convince me that House Sparrow numbers are decreasing but why, with a large area of lawn to choose from, so many feed in such a small space I'll never know. There were more out of shot.



In the pond the Common Newts continue to make an appearance from time to time. The best time seems to be around midday.



Finally back to the Hedgehogs. For a while I thought there would be no appearance last night but suddenly two appeared together. At first they seemed to be feeding quite happily together but before too long a Hedgehog jousting match started. It was all one sided as the larger hog kept pushing the smaller one away from the food. The small one was not to be put off though and kept returning. This went on for well over fifteen minutes. In fact it only stopped when I went out to take a couple of still photos.

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

This time I managed to get a face. After a couple of shots the little hog ran off and the large one disappeared soon after that. Hopefully here is a piece of video. This is the first time I have used YouTube as Flickr have a limit of 90 seconds for video files. I can't work out whether the smaller hog is younger or appears so much thinner because the larger one stops it from eating. In that case why do they appear together? A bit of a puzzle at the moment.



This morning I have moved the camera even closer so it is now about 3 to 4 ft away. I want to see what these two are really up to.

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.

Lenses and Pumps

Yesterday was the first sunny day for at least a week and as luck would have it a new pond pump had arrived in the morning. My pond has been without a pump or filtration for over a year. Two identical pumps had failed over the past few years. As is normal both were just past their warranty and the place I bought them from had closed down a while ago. They were not cheap and I had been unimpressed with the price being charged at the local garden centre. In the end I had ordered an Italian made one which looked as though it would do a good job so the first item on the agenda was to get it fixed up and working. After an hour everything was working so now there is water flowing down my little waterfall in to the pond again.



Water goes from the pump into a filter and then to an imitation water hand pump. From that it flows down the waterfall and back into the pond. The birds think the waterfall makes an ideal bath and it is regularly in use for that purpose. The other pipe resting on the side of the waterfall feeds water from a shed roof to help top up the pond. The lump of wood on a pole with a white plastic top is a home made ladybird house though I don't know if it has actually been used as such.

In the pond I saw one of the Common Newts come up for a gulp of air.



Another arrival through the post yesterday morning was a macro lens I had ordered from Hong Kong. I had decided that whenever possible I would leave my main lens attached to the camera. The 70-200mm IS lens does not have a macro facility so the nearest I can get to anything is about four feet. That is not too much of a problem as the zoom along with the sharpness of the optics and the 15Mpixels of the camera allows some fairly small crops. Anyway for the princely sum of $9.99 including postage I though I would order a +4 macro lens which screws to the front of the main lens. It works better than I expected at the price. It is useless at full zoom but at 70mm it allows me to stand a lot closer and doubles the size of what is being photographed. The depth of field is less but it is sharp and clear. How do they do it at the price?

Some examples with the +4 in place: Apart from cropping they are otherwise untouched.

From Blogger Pictures

These are all still crops but not such small ones as would have been needed with the main lens by itself.

After I had taken the macro lens off the camera I spotted a bee which refused to show me its head. Having perused a few identification sites I think it is a mining bee but then again I could be wrong.

Many thanks to Dean from MostlyMacro for letting me know that the bee looks like the Common Carder Bee. I'm learning - slowly.





The weather looks like it has returned to dull and dreary again but at least I got one sunny day.

Underwater Romance

Yesterday being a Bank Holiday I spent the best part of the day pottering round the garden. I soon get irritated by crowds and noise (grumpy old man syndrome) so I keep out of the way on such days. After a misty and drizzly start it turned out to be a lovely warm day for the time of year.

Checking the pond I spied a pond skater (common water-strider, Gerris lacustris) so fetched the camera. I had to wait a while as it was dashing around all over the place and occasionally leaping up. Eventually it rested a while for me to get a couple of portraits.



Earlier on I thought I had briefly spied the tail of a disappearing newt so I hung around every so often to try to get a better view. Eventually I was rewarded by seeing not one but four newts all in view at the same time.

Later I saw two Common Newts which were staying very close together and it appeared to be a male following a female. These shots are rather murky as they were on the bottom of the pond.



After a while what appeared to be the female came to the surface and spent a while probably laying eggs on the pond weed. The middle picture shows quite a fat belly which is what leads me to believe it is the female.



She stayed there a while and then moved on to another clump of weed where she spent more than a minute in the same spot.



As there were fish around I stayed near this area to keep them away. When she had finished I gathered some of the weed from this spot and transferred it to the nursery pond where the frog spawn is so that if there were any eggs they would have a chance to hatch. There was a short mass of jelly about an inch long and a quarter of an inch wide. Whether this was laid by the newt or a great pond snail I am not sure. Only time will tell.

I was fascinated by the way the great pond snails move from one area of the pond to another. Sometimes they slither round the outer edge but many other times they float upside down and let the breeze take them across the water. As they reach new pastures they wrap them selves round the stem and start browsing on the algae there.



About 2 p.m. the weather started to change, drizzle and getting cooler, so we went for afternoon walkies and then I called it a day on the photographic front. By 3 it was raining and it rained on and off the rest of the day.