26/4/08: PALMATE NEWTS AND SLOW WORMS

A sunny afternoon of weeding round my Rockroses on one of my Metford Road allotments.

Jeremy said he had seen a newt in his small pond (a pre-formed black plastic job no more than 6 square feet in surface area and a bit over 18” deep) when thinning out the pondweed, so I had a look. There were three Palmate Newts, two males and one gravid female (see quick ID guide at http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk/palmate_newt.htm). I first recorded the species in two other ponds on the site a couple of years ago. I must admit to being slightly disappointed, as I keep hoping to find some Common (=Smooth) Newts to add to the tally here. There had been a lot of frog tadpoles in this pond, but only one could now be seen. The Newts may have taken their toll, and there could be dragonfly nymphs present. A Damselfly nymph was seen climbing up a submerged stem.

There were adult Slow Worms under covering material on three of my compost heaps, in one case a male and a female (these tend to have dark, blackish, flanks) under a piece of corrugated iron, even though this had by now been in shade for some time. The greatest number I’ve seen together on one of my heaps is twelve.

A pristine Speckled Wood butterfly put in an appearance. A small species of blue butterfly whizzed by and, given the height, flight pattern and other factors this was almost certainly a Holly Blue. April/May and July/August are peak periods for it in the Bristol area, with Holly the spring larval food-plant and ivy in the autumn, though other species are sometimes used.

At one point a Gull flew over very low, making a rather distressed, pre-historic-sounding noise and with its neck rather crooked. For a moment I could imagine being back in the Jurassic with a Pterosaur gliding overhead.