Friday 10 April 2015

NEWT NIGHT

Quite a few people attended the evening, 35 visitors + ourselves were present.
A nice gent brought a few Great Crested newts in for us to look at, he is licensed to own & handle them of course.
We managed to find a few newts trying to dodge the torches, & I managed to borrow a net off somebody & scooped a Female Palmate Newt out for all to see.
A few of the younger ones seemed to really enjoy letting it sit in their cupped hands, where it seemed to be really relaxed, enjoying the warmth from our bodies I guess.
Robin had some Bat detection gear & quite a few bats were zipping about the Bailey Bridge on the way back, where surprisingly there wasn't any screaming due to all the big spiders lurking on the bridges metalwork!
The ladies didn't seem to be afraid either! hahaha.

The female Palmate newt I netted looking for some more warm hands to sit on!
 
 A moth was nearly stood on sitting on the floor of the Bridge - Apparently an Early Tooth-striped Moth - Thanks Andy!

 
 
One of the hundreds of "Bridge Spiders" that came out after dark!
 
The special ones .......


Great Crested Newts - Pair, Female & Male kindly displayed for a good look.
The visitors seemed to enjoy their night out & I think everyone got to see whatever they had come for.

Margaret has passed a few pictures for adding so:

 Some of the people gathered round our Newt Man before the walk, taken by a tall person me-thinks!
 The Man himself showing off a Great Crested Newt & visitor trying to get a look at it.
 One of the Newts top
One of the Newts belly - very bright colours they have.
 Everyone spread out looking for their own newts.
I'm sure there's a newt here somewhere!
A Bat Detector in Action 
 
 

4 comments:

AndyC said...

The moth looks like an Early tooth striped.

B.Nield said...

Thanks for that info Andy - Modified description accordingly.
I Just took a stab at it, You have much better knowledge on these than me.

Steve Midgley said...

Sounds like a good evening shame I was stuck in Reading

Allan said...

It was a great evening. Thanks Robin and Chris (The Newt Man)