Playing dead

A bright and breezy day, though still with a bit of a chill in the air. Pete, Chris and I went for an afternoon walk to Ring Haw, which has some sheltered south-facing banks where a few male solitary bees were hanging round waiting for the females to emerge. 

Pete turned over a large piece of limestone and found three great crested-newts underneath, not yet emerged from hibernation. This one was lying on his back, playing dead, which gave an excellent view of the magnificent orange and black belly. Each newt has a unique belly pattern, and this can be used to help assess population sizes. Great crested-newts are a protected species and therefore must not be touched or disturbed intentionally. After a very quick photo shoot we carefully placed the rock back, making sure that they were all quite safe.