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We have at least 3 types of newts 1 being the great crested. They are in our old swimming pool in the garden. They seem to thrive despite the fact they can't get out as are in the pool all year round. Are they quite content to stay in water all the time?

my neighbour kindly gave me some newts for my pond, however they were black and not spotted , what type of newts were they can you tell me?

We have a newt infestation! In our 2m by 4m pond I counted in excess of 40 smooth and palmate newts one night in early May. They have eaten all the toad and frogspawn which appeared around the same time!! Imagine our excitement when we saw a much bigger great-crested newt later on. Many of the adults have since departed but the youngsters are growing rapidly.

Wonder if any one can shed light on a problem I have with my pond. Unfortunately leeches seem to like the conditions of it and I seem to have loads!! I have had my pond for 3 years and have never noticed them before. We always have lots of tadpoles but this year they have all disapeared is this something to do with the leeches?

I do not have newts as you describe but I have bright orange semi opaque salamanders about 4cm long in the "wild patch" in my back garden. They have a dark line either side down the length of their body with spots. I have looked them up in vain and would be pleased to know anything about them as they have colonised stacked welsh quarry tiles which I want to use to lay a patio but do not want to disturb them if they are rare.

Victoria-

Whereabouts in the United Kingdom do you live? I should have thought that any salamanders are pretty rare in Britain. I've seen orange and black salamanders in the South West of France.

"The best way to find Great Crested Newts is to simply look for them in the pond just around sunset using a torch"

I'm pretty sure you still need a license to torch survey a pond that you know has Great Cresteds in it. Please, please check this out with Natural England to make sure or you could get people into trouble!

I'd love to have newts in my garden! :D Sadly, we don't have a pond though. Hopefully when we move we'll get one!
I also love frogs! They're fascinating things!

Victoria,

Salamanders are very rare (and an introduced species) in the UK so it is very unlikely. What it sounds like to me are juvenile newts, probably smooth/common. Have a look here to see if you agree or not

I live in the mountains of Snowdonia. I do not recognise my newt/salamander from the links you gave so I have just been out into thegarden to try and catch one but it is too wet and not one around. I will try and take a picture when the weather clears. I occasionally see them sunning themselves on the quarry tiles and they dart around very quickly then and are always semi-opaque orange all over.

I live in surrey and have smooth newts in my pond as well as different coloured frogs. RobD mentioned that the newts were eating the frogspawn this could explain why all mine disappeared.

The goldfish in my mother's pond are being eaten alive by the tadpoles. When she first told me I didn't believe her. On seeing it for myself it is horribly true. One goldfish, still alive, had been eaten down to the flesh and was covered in tadpoles. I removed hundreds of tadpoles from her pond and transferred them to mine where they in turn have been eaten by my goldfish (subtle revenge). My mother has had a pond for nearly 30 years and this is the first time this has happened. Is this a new breed of killer tadpole or is there some other explanation?

It would be interesting if Victoria could get a photo. Newts (especially smooth don't run around fast (they tend to 'play dead. when seen), nor do they 'sun' themselves. Reptiles (e.g. lizards sun themselves). Salamanders don't tend to move quickly either.

From that new information Victoria, what you're seeing is almost certainly common lizards. Newts don't run, they walk, and as annelichene says, lizards run very fast and sun themselves. Here are some pictures of them...
male
female
juvenile

I'm very excited to have found my first newt in my garden pond! Looking at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã guide I believe it is a smooth newt, it is quite long and slim and appears to be a pale green colour with some faint brown markings/spots. I've taken a picture but not sure if I can upload it on here. We also have several frogs, including a very small one - a juvenile perhaps? Several weeks ago there was a mass of frogspawn which turned into tadpoles then disappeared. I hope the tadpoles are growing in the pond and not been eaten by either the fish, frogs or newt!

Hi Foalie,
You should be able to put your photo on here by uploading it to a photo sharing site like Flickr, then you can cut and paste the link onto here. Smooth newts are probably the species most commonly found in garden ponds, so you are probably right. Keep an eye out for newt larvae, as they are arriving on the scene about now. They look like baby fish rather than tadpoles, and have feathery gills.

@ No4 Rach - re Leeches. Have a look here at something I've not come across before leeches eating frog spawn

A licence is needed to torch for Great Crested Newts as it is classed as disturbance

I have had both smooth newts and palmate newts in my small (2m x 1m) pond since March that have seemed happy laying their eggs on the water plants but during the last couple of weeks I have been finding them dead just outside the pond on the grass (5 so far). One had a visible puncture mark to its abdomen the others didn't show any outward signs of injury. I was thinking cat attacks? Does anyone know of a similar scenario or is it natural for a proportion of newts to die naturally like this? I have also sampled the water and haven't found any newt tadpoles at all but there are loads of leeches and worms, could this be a factor?

emergency!!!!! a injured black bird chick just fell out of its nest, can someone emeidetly tell me what to do

last year my son found a newt in his dads garden which is completely covered in concrete, and bought it home to our pond. I think it is a male smooth, & he has stayed over winter - but seems to be alone, will other newts come? we also have frogs in our garden/pond.

We live in North Devon and in our garden have a small pond. At the last count we have 23 smooth newts and 1 white newt and what appears to be a white baby newt. Is this rare?