Back already

[morg]

Cleaning out one of my garden ponds today I was surprised to see that I have a returning female Triturus cristatus swimming around in there already.
Havent had chance to check my other ponds but will do so over the coming week to see if I have any more early returns

 

[Azhael]

We are having incredibly crazy weather here...we are at about 10ºC during the day which is abolutely ridiculous for this month here...it should be freezing. I´m sure this is affecting local caudates, i wish i had a car to go and check if they are already going to their water places.
What are the average temps there Morg? And out of curiosity..you don´t happen to have a record of your first sights each year, do you?

 

[morg]

I do have details of first returns for the last 4 years somewhere, I will search them out and let you know.
This is the first year Ive seen a female first though, every other year my first sighting has been of a male in full breeding dress.
Temperatures here are mild for the time of year, I dont know for sure but would say probably between 8-10 c through the daytimes, dipping to about half that each night

 

[ajc]

How come Spring in Doncaster always comes four months before Spring in Leicestershire?

 

[Bellabelloo]

Timely reminder...must do pond!!.
It'll be a big job as I have to take down all the cat repelling stuff first ..I do have a frog that has just started calling for its buddies.

 

[morg]

Rodrigo
Sorry for the delay in this reply, but I cannot find the notes I took of return dates of newts to my ponds.
However I checked up on the RAUK forum, as I remember posting about returns last year.

First sighting last year was of a fully crested up male cristatus on the 6th of January.
Although I then checked each day and night, I did not see another one untill mid feb.
Im almost certain that in 2006, the first return was again a male, was again in January, but I think about the middle of the month.

 

[Azhael]

Thank you Morg, that´s interesting. So the first ones always in January....i was thinking, were they always cresteds? I know here some populations of marmoratus enter water in late fall, so maybe some populations of cresteds are "early" water visitors too. Do you have any idea about the other possible species you may have in your ponds? I think that would be interesting to compare....

 

[crested]

Two male GCN seen in my garden pond tonight!
No sign yet of the smooth and palmate newts that also use the pond.
We never used to see newts in our pond untill March but in recent years I have seen individual GCN (male and female) back in the pond as early as Christmas day and last year, 2007 there was a male in the pond in mid November.

Trevor Beebee has done some interesting studies on newt returns to his garden ponds based on his own records going back 30 years. I think his results are available through the British Herpetological Society.

 

[Mark]

If the climate is changing and newts breed earlier in the year I wonder if there will be an increase in larval size at metamorphosis due to an increased growth window. It would follow that larger larvae would have higher survival rates and therefore be good for UK T.cristatus populations. Has anyone monitored larval size? If things really warm up there could be increased cases of neoteny.

 

[morg]

I havent had a chance to check my garden ponds since my last post, but have gone out there in the pouring rain tonight armed with a torch, and in one of the ponds I now have both cristatus, and vulgaris returned.

 

[crested]

Hi
I was out in the garden myself last night (mild/raining) and saw 5 male and 6 female GCN and approx 15 smooth/palmate in the pond. No sign of eggs or leaf folds yet.

2 large female GCN also seen on the lawn, one attempting to pull a worm out of its burrow! Weather much colder tonight may take a quick look in the pond before I go to bed, the wife thinks I must be mad god only knows what the neighbours think!

Regards
Jim

 

[terrytherat]

Looked into my pond this afternoon and noticed a couple of smooth newts so decided to have a look after dark about 30 smooth newts (males and females) and at least 6 male palmates so there must be female palmates too. No signs of my cristitus yet though.
In my vivs my marbled newts are not in the water yet but my dobrogicus are just starting to lay eggs 2 of my terrestris had babies 1 on new years day x4 then 2 days later 22 and the other had hers 3 weeks ago lots of them but she is in a viv with a very weedy pond so i dont know how many she's had. No signs yet of Karelini, Banded or any of the Alpine species

 

[morg]

After the initial early returns to my garden ponds, this is turning out to be the worst year for returns in years.
How are other peoples going?

 

[Bellabelloo]

I haven't seen even a frog since I last posted...but I'll check later!!