Monday 3rd November
I am not back to work until Wednesday so managed to snatch a quick hour at New Hythe today after dropping the children off this morning.
Most noticeable was the number of Goldcrest around, I must have seen/heard 10 during my walk. Also good numbers of Redwing around, at least 100 I would say, Green & Great Spotted Woodpecker, also numbers of Pochard, Tufted Duck, Coot and Gadwall are starting to build up.
Most interesting was the number of Newts I found. At least 20 Smooth/Common Newt of various ages......any help here Fred, are the sandy coloured ones efts and the greenish ones sub-adults or adults? I have since been told that the darker ones are adult male Smooth Newt and the two at the bottom adult female Smooth Newt. They are now hibernating so I certainly wont disturb them......
SMOOTH/COMMON NEWTS
posted by Steve @ 5:00 pm
4 comments
4 Comments:
Steve ,
Don't quote me as gospel , but as I understand it , efts are this year's young who can only live in the water , as they have gills on either side of the head and extract oxygen from the water te same way as fish do . As they get older ( 10/12 weeks+ ), the gills disappear and they breath air like an adult . Size is the determining value for juvenile or adult .Looking at a ruler , 3-5 cms. would indicate juvenile
Smooth/Common Newt , and I find they are usually rusty/brown colour . Adults are 6-8 cms. and can be a variety of colours , greenish , brownish some rusty . Hope this mumbling is of some help .
Thanks Fred...from that I would say that the majority of what I saw were juvenilles with a couple of adults....I think!!
Beautiful photographs.......lovely to see them......
there are a lot of goldcrest around here at the moment.....pretty little birds.....
Nice photo's Steve.
Shame the weather wasn't kinder for you. Maybe tommorrow wil be better. It's always great to see Goldcrests. To think that these birds we are seeing may have come across from Europe. Quite a trek for our smallest bird.
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