I remember newting for as long as I can think back. I was known to sneak away from Kindergarten and later elementary school because I found the newt pond down the street more interesting. I caught newts at that pond w. my childhood buddies.
I had one truly defining experience: when I was about 12, I found the most wonderful pond about 15 miles from our house in a field in a forest. It had all 4 German Triturus species (Triturus alpestris, helveticus, cristatus and vulgaris), plus Bombina variegata, Hyla arborea, grass frogs and common toads, grass snakes, slow worms and lizards - everything!
Many weekends, I'd ride my bike there and spend the whole day newt- watching. I sooo wanted to observe tham at their breeding games, but whenever I waded into the water, the pond scum would come up and the whole pond would cloud over and the newts would skitter away. So one fine day in May I packed my bathing suit, snorkel mask, and a blow-up rubber float thingy we brought from vacation in Spain and peddled my bike to the pond. I blew up the float and put the mask on, and then I floated face-down in the pond water, looking down upon the newts.
Because I was floating motionless the newts didn't feel threatened - I must have been like flotsam or a big cloud to them. I saw everything - mating games, tail fanning, up to 5 males harassing one female, males courting the wrong species of females, I saw a crested newt catch and eat a leech, and - highlight of the day - saw a grass snake slip into the pond and swim past me and dive under the surface, obviously looking for newts to catch.
That was one of the coolest days of my childhood - I felt the tingle of discovery for weeks after that, and by then I was pretty sure I wanted to be a biologist
