Tiny

Like almost everyone else in the country, I suspect, Cathy and I enjoyed our lunch outdoors today, in the glorious sunshine.  After lunch, I got out my acoustic guitar and was just starting to play when I noticed some movement in the pond.  Closer inspection reveals that the pond has been colonised by newts this year.  There appear to be at least 2 pairs of Smooth Newts in residence.  There could be more, but I have definitely seen 4 of them at the same time.

One of the females (possibly this one) seems to be wrapping herself around some of the plants in the pond and I am pretty sure that she's laying eggs.  So you never know, maybe we will have newts next year too :-).  I've given you a shot of one of the males popping up for a breath of air as an extra.  

Hopefully the local heron won't find them, fortunately it visits infrequently nowadays after eating all my Koi Carp a few years ago. Talking of predators, in previous years a pair of mallards has taken up residence in the Spring, but they've not been back this year, so I wonder whether that is related to the newts arrival - ducks do eat newts and their offspring I understand.

This is one of the better pictures that I took.  Its surprisingly difficult to take pictures of fast moving wriggly things below the surface of the water.  I eventually remembered earlier this evening that I have polarising filter that will fit the lens that I used for this.  By then the light was too dark to make using the polariser workable, but I will have it to hand for next time I get the chance to photograph these little fellows.