Newts

Several years ago a heron visited our garden pond and during a brief period when it wrought havoc amongst the resident frogs it also pecked a hole in the liner. Since then the water level has sunk so that it's only a few inches deep most of the time. But the upside to having a leaking pond is that the shallow water suits breeding newts just fine and it's easy to watch their antics during the breeding season.

This is a male in alligator mode: legs back, tail undulating, just a like a 'gator in the Everglades (if you've got a vivid imagination)

Some Nice Moves from our Garden Newts ....

We only recently realised that the small pond that I installed three years ago, which is only about one metre long, has been colonised by palmate newts, which are now resplendent in their courtship colours...... which are not so evident from this angle ....

.... but show up nicely when you can see the amphibian's flanks ........

...... and tail.

Tonight I spent a fascinating half-hour watching the whole courtship ritual. These two are patrolling the dead leaves on the bottom of the pond, through a blizzard of water fleas that will, in due course, provide plenty of food for the newt tadpoles.

There was a lot of chasing going on, over and under the leaves, and then ...

.... this one spotted a potential mate ....

.... and chose the brightest-coloured beech leaf in the pond as his dance floor, where he began to display some of his best moves ....

...... first positioning himself at right-angles to her and using his tail to waft water in her direction ....

...... then executing an acrobatic handstand and ninety degree turn ....

..... until he could waft the stream of water directly over her with his vibrating tail.

Then the batteries on the camera (a waterproof Pentax W20) ran out ....but he's probably still dazzling her with his dancing now, as darkness falls.