My friend has had Great Crested Newts in his garden pond since November, now joined by Smooth and Palmate. 

Congratulations on the find,Jeroen!:)

Kevin,where does your friend live in the UK? I am in north-west London and we have a pond in the back yard where I was told there were newts and frogs breeding!It's my first year in the country and I haven't seen them! They are not out,yet..at least in our garden! :( 

At least 5cm snow covering the complete viper area here in Nuremberg. ;) I am not sure whether there is already some movement here. :-/ Nice find! 

My first herps for 2010 are (as usual) Rana temporaria, last week I saw them swimming underneath the ice in my garden pond. 

Hi Ilian, my friend lives in the south west in Gloucester.The newts turned up in November and the males started to develop crests. We then had some very cold weather followed by even colder and the water froze for a long time. Tonight there were a few more Great Crested Newts and many Smooth and Palmates. The Palmates are doing their courtship dance and a R temporaria have turned up. 

Visiting the berus place a few days ago :-D
http://berus.blockbox.de/123.jpg 

I have to admit there's no "clear cutting" in when Belgian amphibian spring really begins: the occasional Bufo bufo and Rana temporaria can be observed active down here throughout the winter, provided that it's not too cold. For Salamandra, it's like all the books say: can be active throughout the year if there's no frost. The big numbers will have to wait for at least a couple of weeks, I'm guessing, depending on the weather. Last year, about 22 salamanders on my routine walk on 23/03, with more than twice as many on 8/04. As there seemed already to be quite some larvae deposite during the former, I wanted to start a little earlier this year, so... Autumn seems, however, to be even better (7/10/2009 after a long period without rain, over 70).

Kevin, these newts would have been arriving over winter? They can also hibernate in the water, especially Palmate, if I remember well. 

> Visiting the berus place a few days ago :-D
> http://berus.blockbox.de/123.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dig,_Lazarus,_Dig!!!

;-) 

I use to work as a landscape gardener and Some times a Customer would ask us to remove an old pond and build a new one in the dead of winter, believing that would have the least disturbance on amphibians.
But we would often find frogs and newts hibernating at the bottom of the pond even with a thick layer of ice on top.
Some times they would be in large numbers in comparison to the size of pond but
I can’t remember ever finding toads hibernating in water!



Tony
 

Does somebody know what temperatures should there be and for how long for newts and frogs to get active in England?

Kevin,Gloucester isn't that far from London and I doubt it that weather is very different from here!What are the temperatures there? 

Ilian,
In northern England where I live its about 6-7C for amphibian activity, although palmate and smooth newts can be active at even lower temperatures that this. When common frogs and toads start breeding, here usually last week of feb for frogs, mid-march for toads, it is still typically cold.
Matt 

Matt,
Thanks a lot for the answer!Here in London it's been 7-9 degrees for 2-3 days but still neither frogs nor newts are out in the ponds! Today I was at a spot in the north-west of the city with a number of good ponds and channels but found nothing in them. I was tempted to flip one or two logs aroung the ponds and there were tens of tiny juvenile newts,one adult newt (not sure if they were Smooth or Palmate,maybe both) and two Common frogs.They were quite active,moving around and the frogs were jumping!I put the logs back carefully and left the animals in peace.Maybe a few more days and they will be in the water if the weather is good. 

Just jealous for you guys. here in Bulgaria we still have snow... at least where I live, and today we got some more. JUST DRIVING ME NUTS! Or maybe it's just a way to learn some patience before the spring and frogs and snakes and all that other stuff comes out... hope it will come soon. 

> Maybe a few more days and they will
> be in the water if the weather is good.

Belgian weather report predicts another period of days of (nocturnal) frost... 

Ilian, frogs and palmate newts are starting to reach their ponds in Brighton, only about 50 miles south of London. Won't be long until the main migration... 

Over the Pennines from Matt Wilson here in South Yorkshire i have some data (not mine). Earliest date for Common Frog is Jan 6th latest March 2nd with earliest spawn 2nd Feb. For Common Toad earliest 18th Feb latest 20th April main migration tends to be last week in March first in April. Earliest for Palmate newt is 6th Feb latest 15th March. I would guess London is 2-3 weeks ahead of us up here. Theres still ice on some ponds round here so im going to leave it another week. 

It is still 1C in my village and will be for the next week or so, that is why activity is usually quite alot later than southern England. I have seen frogs in January when we had mild winters a few years ago, but the last two years has been freezing with lots of snow so typically I don't even bother looking until late feb.

At the pond near my house I usually don't see any sign of frogs and then all of a sudden after light rain and a warm night I pay a visit and there are hundreds all over the place, together with newts. I can guess now when they will be all out, I just wait for a sharp increase in temperature together with light rain and I know that will start them off. 

Today the temperature in London is 2 C,so I guess we'll have to wait some more time. 

Walking the dog in an area called 'Chadwick Lakes' near my hometown on Saturday morning in an uncharacterisically beautiful warm February day, of which we have had quite a few last week, I could see a few dozen of these and managed to get a focused picture on my phone despite the bright sunlight on my screen. Also painted frogs and tadpoles in reasonable numbers and countless small birds. The geckos were all quite fat and not very agile in the 17 degree temperature with some cool wind. The valley should have had much higher water levels at this time of year, however our rainfall has been quite poor and infrequent this winter.

Hope this turns out good, it's my first upload 

In Slovakia this winter (and not only this, but almost every winter) it is impossible. We can only envy silently :-) 

After my previous post, it started snowing again. The few brave salamanders had to retreat back into their burrows. Yesterday, however, it seems to have started for real, with also smooth newt and common toad moving towards their ponds.

3 in situ pics...

A female =>

A small but pregnant female =>

And a less regularly coloured male =>

About 20 animals all together on my regular walk, which is a little less than half what I expect to come over the next weeks. 

I already asked on the other board - may I flag first for mainland europe?

27.02.2010, Nuremberg, Germany, two nice adult males out.

V. berus berus / male / in situ

Yesterday, no reptiles...

There is some activity amongst amphibians here in the Netherlands but not much. Some crested newts, common newts, common frogs and common toads are on the move but it's still waiting for the massive migration. 

Well we had some real summer weather here and I have two confirmed sightings of adult viridiflavus, one of which seems to have been quite large (the witness quotes over 2 metres, but then he wears thick lenses). It does look like the cool weather is gone for this season. 

Had my first reptile of 2010 today, nice little adder. There were four out on the site yesterday apparently but today was cloudier unfortunately so just this one, photos in situ.

Nice V.berus Liam it looks almost melanistic! perhaps it will lighten up once it sheds its winter skin. 

Hello Tony, I think he will lighten up a bit. There's at least two melanistic/dark snakes in this small population. I'll have to go back and try and find them after first slough 

We had a warm day on Monday 1st March and so I headed out to a local site and found my first Adder of the year