In most of my lifetime, for well over 70 years I have been interested in everything around me be it living or dead. My hobbies /holidays bring me closer to nature and the natural environment than most. Everywhere you come across ENVIROMENT AWARE.. notices. There are 2 species both protected with large fines … even prison! great CRESTED NEWTS, and BATS. When they developed the Whitchurch site [hospital etc ] I informed the council of the habitat of Gt CRESTED NEWTS that lived in the pond where a service road was to be driven through, and the land close to it . It will be investigated they said ( or work paused till it was ) guess what 2 days later a bulldozer went across the area, to be the access road and cleared all the vegetation and leveled the pond. I approached the driver of the dozer and explained he should not be doing it, it was a protected pond he said " i am only doing my job" For some reason this post sent itself! I have this weekend just contacted the [ national ] Bat conservation organization [group] regarding a possible roost site for bats which is due for demolition, their response was [verbally] go to our website and you will probably find an answer there! Bristol City Council who are responsible for the work are delaying in replying to my request for info on whether they have followed due diligence and had the site checked. Of course like the newts … no habitat left standing and no proof there was !
Those ‘rare’ newts seem to pop up wherever there’s building going on in ‘green belt’ areas. I suspect they’re not rare at all. I was walking the dog one evening in Wanborough along a forest footpath and the path was littered with them - I’m not sure exaggerating - I actually took photos of them and moved them off the path so they wouldn’t get trodden on. There seemed to be 2 different species.
My post above seems to have corrupted!! Above is one sort of newt I ‘saved’ from being stepped on. Here is the other sort:
I've seen some 'Pissed as a newt" types, when I were a lad we used to roam fields near Brockley and we used to catch newts or amphibia in the field ponds, makes me feel quite ashamed of myself but life was different in the dark ages.
Never caught newts but to my eternal shame we went bird nesting. The rarer the bird the more kudos received. I so regret my actions back then.
Whenever I went newt finding in Gloucester there was loads of them that my mum used to go mad with them in the house.
the top one looks like a female Gt Crested, but slim chance could be a Palmate … what time of the year was it? The bottom picture has smooth skin, but is lacking some of the markings of the smooth or common newt [maybe just the photo]…. might even be a lizard? They actually spend most of the time out of the water [pond] and can hibernate upto a half a mile from the pond ...
never seen them before in my life ...lol He was quite handsome though … thinking sharpe wimshurst parr derrick … Must have been OVER 50 YEARS AGO!!!
