Smooth newts and tadpoles Intensive Care Unit.

The colouring of Smooth Newts seems to be varied from different sources.  Click on the above picture to expand it to see a male and female feeding on a lump of bread.

The female above looks to have eaten too much bread or is pregnant.

In any case there are many reports that if a pond has fish or newts then tadpoles get eaten. So, with tadpoles from Surrey, I have set up a tadpoles Intensive Care Unit, (ICU).

I have subsequently topped it up with gallons of rain water and removed all the snails.  The tadpoles are thriving after two days in ICU.  I'll monitor them daily and add them to the ponds when big enough to stand a chance against newts.  A crow was "fishing" in the pond yesterday.  Perhaps it got some newts.
For more info' on newts see http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/479.shtml