Great Crested Newts (Triturus Cristatus) in garden ponds

[will_j]

are they breeding during this period of the year? :O
think the cristatus will have to wait a bit longer here in sweden

not usually I think they return to the water a month or two before breeding. But we have had another mild winter, so some early breeding may well be on the cards. I'd expect to start finding eggs by the end of february here.

 

[crested]

Hi Alexander,

I have observed a male GCN displaying to a large, egg swollen female GCN in my garden pond over the weekend, still no sign of eggs or leaf folds.

However, I have recieved a report from a very reliable source that GCN eggs and leaf folds have already been found (last week) among water-forget-me-not in a field pond in the Nantwich area (Cheshire, UK).

So in answer to your question, yes Cristatus are already breeding in the UK (at least Cheshire ).

Please keep me informed of when they start to breed in Sweden.

Regards

James

 

[will_j]

Nantwich eh? That's not a million miles from me, i think i might check the ponds here over at the weekend!

 

[snussmak]

Hi Alexander,

I have observed a male GCN displaying to a large, egg swollen female GCN in my garden pond over the weekend, still no sign of eggs or leaf folds.

However, I have recieved a report from a very reliable source that GCN eggs and leaf folds have already been found (last week) among water-forget-me-not in a field pond in the Nantwich area (Cheshire, UK).

So in answer to your question, yes Cristatus are already breeding in the UK (at least Cheshire ).

Please keep me informed of when they start to breed in Sweden.

Regards

James

i promise, i will even go as far as trying to take som pictures. the gcn is one of swedens most endangered species, so even picking up one is a crime in itself. it's a shame that their ponds is drying out or getting to acidic to house newts. but later on i will try to post a thread with some pictures of their (and the t.vulgaris) breeding pond.

 

[lims]

I know of a local park which had grant money spent on it to get it back to its victorian splendor. They have sorted out a quite large previosly dried up pond maybe 5 -7 metres wide quite deep. There are sticklebacks. I wanted to try start a newt colony there. I'm going to get that book and check the pond out again, There is a much larger lake/pond elsewhere in the park with ducks but they dont tend to go in the smaller pond which is a 5 minute walk from the bigger. One consern I have is that the park is isolated and surrounded by bricks but it may contain enough of the right habitat to sustain the GCN, we shall see maybe... maybe I'm being naeve...

 

[crested]

Hi all

I have just checked my garden pond (11am between rain showers) and found my first GCN egg and several GCN leaf folds.

As expected the females are using water-forget-me-not.

No smooth or palmate newt eggs found so far.

 

[crested]

Nantwich eh? That's not a million miles from me, i think i might check the ponds here over at the weekend!

Hi

I don't want to put a damper on your enthusiasm but in the UK unless you have a GCN survey licence from Natural England or Scottish National Heritage or the Countryside Council for Wales (depending on the country) searching for GCN eggs could be viewed as deliberate disturbance and could constitute an offence under both European and UK legislation.

I strongly advise a call or a visit to the Natural England website to check out the sitituation re GCN
before you go out looking for GCN eggs, adults or larvae.

Deliberate disturbance can result in a fine of up to £5,000 and or a period of up to six months imprisonment for each offence commited.

Regards
James

 

[crested]

Just a quick update to let you all know that my garden pond now contains large numbers of great crested and smooth newt eggs, as evidenced by the hundreds of leaf folds observed today on the water forget-me-not, brooklime and flote grass within the pond.

Some of the embryonic larvae inside the eggs are already quite well developed, but no free swiming newt larvae have been observed in the pond yet.

I would estimate that in excess of 30 adult GCN and 150+ smooth newts have returned to breed in the pond this year. As usuall all the frogspawn/developing tadpoles have been eaten by the newts!

Regards
James

 

[lalchitri]

Hi James,

Had the pleasure of purchasing your book about a year back.
My situation is that I dug a pre-formed pond in my garden in 2006.
It was not surprisingly very successful so dug a butyl lined pond with sloping sides and dimensions of 3m*2m*0.5m in a sunnier part of the garden about june 2007.
I probably missed the 2007 breeding season thus, but still had a few late straggler smooth newt females arrive almost immediately (probably as a result of a school pond three doors down being concreted over at the time).
Thus, I even had smooth newt larvae in late september.
This year (less than a year after the pond was dug) the newts began to arrive in January and have continued to come since.
At present there are about 30, with about 15 frogs also.
The recent cold spell seems to have killed some of the early eggs (along with much of the frogspawn), but can see a few larvae swimming around.
As an aside, the newts seem to have eaten a far bit of the frogspawn too.

 

[crested]

Hi

Glad to hear that your pond has been colonised by frogs and newts so quickly.

Thought I would let you all know that the adult GCN breeding in my pond have now started to leave the pond and enter their terrestrial phase. I found several adult GCN in the garden last night (hunting for worms!)following heavy rain during the day.

Cheers
Jim

 

[John]

That's a lovely pond. What kind of area do you live in? Is it rural, suburban or urban?

 

[lalchitri]

That's a lovely pond. What kind of area do you live in? Is it rural, suburban or urban?

Sub-urban (I presume you were asking me!).
However, we have quite a large garden with plenty of undergrowth.
Directly in front of our house we have a large country park.
This year in our pond we have 4 active species of amphibians - common frogs, common toads, smooth newts and marsh frogs.
Both the marsh frogs and the common toads were introduced (the marsh frogs mistakenly), but both are thriving.
The Common Frogs came by themselves, but I did initially add some spawn from a friends pond which was due to be dug up and concreted :violent:
The only species which arrived by itself and seems to be overshadowing all other's is the smooth newt.
Currently, the pond seems to be teeming with thei smooth newt larvae.

 

[John]

That's a healthy pond then. I'm guessing from the Marsh Frog population that you live in the south of England?

 

[lalchitri]

That's a healthy pond then. I'm guessing from the Marsh Frog population that you live in the south of England?

Thats right - West London (near Heathrow airport).
The frog's seem to use the pond in shift's.
The Common's were present from February to May, with the spawn laid in mid-march.
The Marsh's (only 3 of them) returned in May and are currently making a racket with their croaking.
The Common's never seem to be present when the Marsh's are in the pond.
I was observing them yesterday and they seemed quite aggresive in chasing off each other, and I guess they seem to completely scare off the more timid common frog's during this period.
However, since both species breeding season's do not overlap, it doesn't seem to be a problem.
As for the smooth newts, the larvae seem to have grown quite large, and some seem to be ready to leave the pond in a week or two.

 

[John]

I guess they seem to completely scare off the more timid common frog's during this period.

Hehe, or rather they eat the common frogs.

 

[crested]

Hi just a quick note to let you all know that the first of this years young great crested newts have recently left the pond.

From the hundreds if not thousands of of GCN eggs laid in the spring it looks likley that less than a dozen GCN larvae have survived the ponds predators (including; backswimmers, water beetles, damselfly nymphs, the adult newts and older siblings) to succesfully metamorphose and leave the pond.

The smooth and palmate newt larvae appear to have enjoyed more success and good numbers of newly emerged young smooth/palmate newts have been found around the garden since the begining of August.

Regards

Jim

 

[snussmak]

Why not make a side project and bring some of the eggs home, thus giving and endangered species a small opportunity of increasing their number? Got any new pics to post?

 

[John]

Why not make a side project and bring some of the eggs home, thus giving and endangered species a small opportunity of increasing their number? Got any new pics to post?

Because that would be illegal (against British and European law).

 

[bobberly1]

Cool newts! Hideous, but cool. I've always loved the crests.

 

[Heather at HMSG]

Hi - I'm fairly new here.

I regard myself as everso privileged to have a healthy population of GCNs in my garden - I moved here (3 miles Ross-on-Wye) 25 years ago, and dug small-ish ponds at the soggy end of my acre.

Shortly after this, a neighbour excavated the soggy end of his adjoining marshy field into a large pond (small lake maybe).

About 3 years later, his pond was one-third silted up after very heavy rain in November, when the filler stream washed from ploughed fields. The following May he set about syphoning the whole pond to re-dredge.

When I realised, with horror, what was happening, I got a large metal drum under the outflow to catch the hundreds of GCN tadpoles being flung down into the small steam, & mostly killed in the process. I also spent several late dark evenings on hands & knees saving GCN tadpoles from the 'drop hole' created by the original outflow. I collected over 300 taddies & 2 adults. Despite me trying to explain, my (elderly) neighbour didn't realise what he did!

Thankfully, he subsequently diverted the stream around his pond, & between us we keep it clear & protect our ponds from flooding, although we have differing reasons to care.

I leave a few old bits of carpet folded in the undergrowth, & can almost guarantee to find one on demand.

GCNs may be nationally rare over here, but certainly locally abundant in the Ross area. My first ever sight of them was in the pond at the end of 'Wilton car park', near the centre of town, but at river level.

Maybe a few of Qs could be answered:
Anyone know how long they live?
How many years they take to mature?
Do jouveniles return to water before sexually mature?
Why do they wander under my kitchen door on occasions? (That one's tongue-in-cheek!)
I have an undated handling licence, issued 20+ years ago, worded for educational purposes, and acquired for me by a seriously caring naturalist locally at the time - is this valid anyone?

Maybe I should buy James' book!.......

Seasons Greetings,

Heather