What I thought was frogspawn in my pond turns out to be newt spawn! It was only when I played back my video and zoomed in, that I realised the tadpoles had tiny gills on the top of their heads and some had developed their front legs. This, in my opinion, is even more exciting than having frogspawn! They will be most welcome to stay on my plot and gobble up all the slugs and snails.
It makes sense when I think about it. Last year around June, I managed to capture footage of a newt’s mating ritual (see below, sorry for the shaky camera!). It’s something I learnt about in one of David Attenborough’s awesome documentaries. Check out how the male newt wiggles its tail at 0.17. So I knew that I had sexually productive newts in my area, but didn’t think they would be back to mate again and lay eggs in my pond! I think they are smooths newts, but I can’t be sure. What do you think?
Homegrown Garden 