December Newts and Salamanders

[Michal Szkudlarek]

Hi.
Today I rescued some newts from one drainage manhole, more T. cristatus than L. vulgaris. One adult female was quite interesting due to its significant total length that was about 16 cm and belly maculation that was typical for young GCN than for old ones. Very striking for me is also fact, that this specimen seemed to have tail sheen like T. carnifex and T. dobrogiscus females. Doing photos I handled with newts using gloves not wishing to warm them.




Greetings

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

@Sandra = very nice pictures and great interest to see newts on terrestrial phase feeding !!

[Michal Szkudlarek]

Hi.
The day before yesterday from road drainage manhole I rescued fat T. cristatus female that was about 15cm total length and L. vulgaris male. Her tail sheen was very tiny with comparsion with this one from my previous post.





Can I boast? Today I received a book with inscription from professor Leszek Berger- one of the most famous Polish herpetologists, the man who discovered that edible frog is a taxon that uses hybridogenesis. This inscription says: "Let's learn to love our frogs, toads and all amphibians". This book with inscription is a prize for second place in a photographic contest organized by Traszka Group- http://www.traszka.com.pl This is the photography which reached second place in this contest:

Greetings !

[GertJan Verspui]

Good job, did you use a flash? It sure looks like it.
The background is very blurry, I like that!!

[Michal Szkudlarek]

Yes, all above photos were made using flash. Sometimes it is necessary- when conditions are not proper. I am doing pics on automatic mode and sometimes I really struggle with creating a good photography.
Greetings

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

They're still out there...

First snow melted away again, and now a night with 8°C and 42 salamanders.

first an in situ male

has to be one of the smallest I've found

first and only orange guy spotted in 2011, together with a more regular one

This will be the last time I annoy you all with this same species this year, I promise .

[GertJan Verspui]

I dont think I speak only for myself, when I say: "keep annoying us Jeroen"

[Bobby Bok]

Not at all! I wish we found a firesalamander wearing the Dutch national colours during our little stroll through your playground woods.

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Not at all! I wish we found a firesalamander wearing the Dutch national colours during our little stroll through your playground woods.

I guess we would have had to beat one up rather badly to also get your flag's blue and white in there...

[Sandra Panienka]

@Jeroen: Salamanders are never annyoing. Keep them coming. ;O)

@Michal: Cool pictures. Love the size comparison between the great crested newt and the smooth newt. Your toad pic is really pretty.

I will add a couple of finds from last night (December 27th). It was around 7-8°C and as usual there were many newts out, about 70 individuals. I also found 10 fire salamanders, eight of them were juveniles. Only one common toad, I assume it is the same one I spotted earlier this month.
















































Not amphibians, but those guys were out on December 11th (sunny, around 6°C at 1.00 pm). I also found four wall lizards today, but haven't had a chance to look at the pics.