Egg of Newt & spawn of Toad

Smooth Newt (Lissotriton vulgaris). Male.
Without the buoyancy of the water, the crest, which runs along his back, is folded over onto his body/tail

Apart from mangling a bit of Shakespeare, last week, I slid into the watery world of the Smooth Newt (Lissotriton vulgaris). This is the UK’s most common and widespread newt species. In terms of its length (up to 10cm), it sits comfortably in between the UK’s smallest newt, the Palmate Newt (Lissotriton helveticus) and the UK’s largest and most protected newt, the Great Crested Newt (Triturus cristatus). All 3 native species are fairly widespread and it seemed plausible that we might have at least 2 of the 3 on BMT land. The only way to find out was to get stuck into a proper, grown-up newt survey.

Close by, local RSK ecologist, Jess Breeze, and 3 bright, young Master’s students, found themselves in need of a convenient training ground. It was a match made in Resource Management heaven. A plan was struck, collaborations agreed and wellies cleaned. We even had an average overnight temperature of or above 5°C on Thursday, making bottle trapping a possibility. All that was missing were the slinky, lizard-like amphibians.

There are four main surveying methods: torching, bottle trapping, netting and locating eggs. They’re all fairly self-explanatory but there’s a whole lot more info here, if you’d like it.

Bovingdon Brickworks, lined pond

We started at Bovingdon Brickworks. The torching count was a complete surprise. Although I’ve seen frogs here, I hadn’t expected newts. We tallied 28 male and 30 female Smooth Newts. It was crawling with life!

Following a count of the adults, it was time to look for eggs. This entails a search for vegetation which has been folded over by the female, using her hind feet, to protect/house the solitary egg in its jelly sack. A single length of vegetation can be used more than once, creating a concertina appearance.

Spot the folded grass stem

Smooth Newt egg, 1) inside the grass stem 2) revealed 3) up close

Over the course of a breeding season, she’ll lay a phenomenal 200-300 of these and they will be the offspring of numerous different males.

The eggs are tiny, approx 2mm in diameter.

The fun didn’t end with the egg hunt. Oh no, after that it was time for bottle trapping in Hay Wood, Westbrook Hay.

8/4/2016, 9am, Hay Wood pond. Bamboo poles mark the location of bottle traps, set 2m apart, 12 hours previously

Bottle traps: 1) in the pond, 2) out of the water, showing angle of submersion, which enables the formation of an air bubble inside to provide trapped newts with oxygen

Our trapping, torching and egg hunt success was less impressive at the Hay Wood pond. Just 1 male and 1 female in the bottle traps. 3 spotted the previous night, torching (the water was too murky, following the heavy rain). No eggs found.

Bottle trap results: 1 female and 1 male Smooth Newt plus a well developed frog tadpole (back legs starting to sprout)

Having never surveyed newts before, it really was a fascinating and fun process. When Jess showed us the telltale sign of the presence of eggs and then unfurled the grass stem, it was one of those moments where you couldn’t help but gasp and smile at the ingenuity of nature. Sure, less than 1% of all the eggs laid will make it to adulthood but the fact remains, delicate, tiny and vulnerable organisms do survive. Nature may be red in tooth and claw but it is also structured in such a way as to sustain a life when it is at its most defenceless. To be aware of that is to experience, and to be enveloped within, a unique kind of limitless beauty. Many thanks to Jess and her colleagues for the opportunity.

Finally, in other news, Toads have spawned at the Brickworks. This is my first record of breeding Toads in the 3 years I’ve been walking the site. I’ve never seen so much frog and toad spawn as I have this season. Perhaps the mild winter meant that significantly more adults survived to breed another day…

5/4/2016, Brickworks breeding Toads ^#1
[Top Left] flooded dell, arrow points to spawn. [Top Right] spawning Toads around that vegetation
[Bottom Left] Toads. [Bottom Right] strings of pearls aka spawn in adjacent dell

P.S. Before I forget, I’ve added a new widget to the top of the left side-bar. The title will likely vary but for now, it links to a post from “this time last year...”.

P.P.S. Brickworks butterflies so far this year: Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Brimstone.
Bird highlights last week: a flock of 6 Lesser Redpoll feeding in a willow at the Brickworks. Amongst them, 3 or 4 males nearly in full breeding plumage - their bright red foreheads now complemented by gorgeous rosy pink chests. In Hay Wood, a pair of Treecreepers at chest height, no more than a few metres away. Exploring tree trunks together and occasionally singing. Any day is improved by a decent sighting of a scuttling creeper.

#1 If you’d like to see each of the photos more clearly, click on the image, then right click and select “open in a new tab”. In the new tab, click on the image to enlarge.

The Embrace of Common Toads

Hemel (BMT): I spent Monday morning with a crowd of frisky Toads. That’s not a euphemism for the sort of people I hang out with, I do mean the amphibians, warts and all. Bank Holiday Monday dawned bright and still. However, I wasn’t going to be fooled and frozen and had put on woolly jumper, hat and gloves. Needless to say, with temperatures reaching above 13 deg C, all 3 were eventually discarded. The warmth of Spring has finally arrived. Thank goodness.

Sunday evening I’d learned that Common Frogs (Rana temporaria) and Common Toads (Bufo bufo) had spawned on Trust land (many thanks to the keen observer). I don’t remember ever having seen Toad strings so their presence was too interesting a sight to resist. In fact, not only were there Toad strings, there were Toads and they were still locked in the mating embrace, amplexus, and spawning.

Much of the time, the pairs remained under water but it was still possible to see the string of double-stranded eggs emerging from the rear of the female (the string can also be triple-stranded, whilst single-stranded egg strings would indicate the far more rare Natterjack Toad (Epidalea calamita)). The male on her back releases sperm cells to fertilise the eggs as they are laid.

The whole process was extremely slow. I spent over 2.5 hours watching them and 1 pair produced perhaps 30cm of eggs. The female steered proceedings, at one point climbing up, through, onto and over vegetation and slowly, slowly going back into the water, her trail of spawn behind her. Somehow, she manages to manoeuvre herself and the male, so as to tie the spawn to vegetation. Very clever indeed.

Toad strings can contain between 400-5000 eggs and be between 3 and 4.5 metres long. One of the Toad pairs on site had opted to spawn where there wasn’t any vegetation to attach the strings to. As a consequence, the pair were hidden and wriggling inside a large ball of eggs approx 20cm in diameter. I’m not sure how long that will last before perhaps a Fox gobbles it up.

Speaking of predators, I did wonder if maybe one of the female Toads had survived an attack of some sort. She had a very badly damaged right back foot. Unlike Common Frogs, Common Toads posses a fairly potent defence mechanism. When under threat, they secrete a foul tasting toxin, bufagin, from glands in the skin. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to dissuade species like Grey Herons, Mink, Rats and Hedgehogs from guzzling them.

The female's badly damaged right back foot

The male's right back foot for comparison

Making their way over the reeds

Common Toads are nocturnal, solitary creatures, coming together only for the short breeding period, following hibernation. Adults return annually to the same breeding ground. And, research suggests that those adults will also have been spawned at that site and their spawn too will return there to breed. Their diet consists mainly of invertebrates caught with their sticky tongue using a “sit and wait” or “whilst I’m passing” strategy. Basically, they are opportunistic feeders, responding to movement.

Until this week, I knew next to nothing about Common Toads and it was interesting to discover that they are 1 of only 6 (or 7, depending on your view on re-introductions) native UK amphibians. It’s a small and select group made up of 1 or probably 2 species of Frog; 2 species of Toad and 3 species of Newt:

Newts	Toads	Frogs
Great Crested Newt (Triturus cristatus)	Common Toad (Bufo bufo)	Common Frog (Rana temporaria)
Smooth Newt (Lissotriton vulgaris)	Natterjack Toad (Epidalea calamita)	*Pool Frog (Pelophylax lessonae)
Palmate Newt (Lissotriton helveticus)

* Evidence suggests that there was/is a native species of British Pool Frog, which was re-introduced within the last decade, into East Anglia. There are, of course, a few non-native amphibian species around too but I won’t list those here.

So, within the first week of April, we’ve had both Common Frogs and Common Toads spawning. Having watched 4 pairs all still releasing and fertilising eggs, it should be possible to follow their progress quite accurately. Tadpoles should hatch within about 10-14 days from laying. It’ll take a further 8-12 weeks for the toadlets to fully develop, leaving the water en mass. And, it’ll be 4 years before these youngsters reach sexual maturity, ready to return here to spawn themselves. The cycle of life continues.

Toad of Toad Hall

Wilstone reservoir: Beautiful, sunny morning. Skylarks singing & displaying (field by the east corner). Goldeneye (3+, 1♂) in east quadrant; Pintail from the hide (at least 1 pair); Cormorants and Grey Herons gathering nesting material; Great Crested Grebes pairing up and displaying occasionally. Little Egrets (2) from car park steps, in field north of reservoir.

Common Toad (bufo bufo) in east corner, on the bank.

Compared to a Common Frog (Rana temporaria) I found at Bovingdon Brickworks last year

For more of the Common Frog see Week 29: Watch Out, Frogs About! at Boxmoor, naturally… HERE