In the Gutter

What a cracking morning when I rolled out of bed to the sound of blackbird, goldfinch and the ever-present spuggies, cheeping away fit to bust. Although there remains a slight chill in the air, the early morning sky suggested a day better than the forecast (much like normal - do they ever get it right?). Keen to test out his new bins, Tom even suggested a bit of birding but this was trumped by the suggestion for us to check for newts at New Hartley.

Newting is something that Tom and I both enjoy but this is a site with a distinct difference. Not your normal beautiful lily fringed pond but a series of road gulleys in a new road surrounding the SSSI. Since the nearby housing estate was built and this curiously twisty road was put in, we have spent many hours fishing unfortunate amphibians from the road drains and returning them to their preferred habitat.

Think of yourself as a newt.

You wake up after a bloody hard winter, and the sap is rising! Struggling through the undergrowth in search of a nice warm pond, you come across a large concrete cliff. Once down this you either turn left/right or progress forward. 

Right or Left leads to a large hole full of water (hard to see in the dark) and OOPS - in you go! Great - water! But ********! There's no way out. 

Progress forward - another cliff, too hard to climb so turn right or left.

Right or Left leads to a large hole full of water (hard to see in the dark) and OOPS - in you go. Great - water! But ********! There's no way out.

Effectively these road drains (gulley pots) act as pitfall traps for the amphibians. Bad enough for common species such as toads or smooth newts, but New Hartley Pond is an SSSI because it has regionally important populations of Great Crested Newt.

Over the last two years we have rescued hundreds of newts from these drains, including some cracking cresties. Sadly, many have also perished in them, along with some pheasant chicks, water shrew and numerous small mammals. 

Taking Trish with us (promising not to be all girly) and armed with a bucket and net (plus my LICENCE - for I am a fully authorised and vetted Great Crested Newt fondler) we set off full of enthusiasm. And while most of Tyneside was probably at the shops (nae footie today-except for the Bay away in the Vase - 3-3 draw!) we conducted our very own rescue.

The water in these drains is full of all sorts of crap, but mostly leaves, all of which are really dark. Newts are a bit hard to spot in them so a careful check of the catch is  required. There are 28 gulley pots in total and it took us nearly three hours as many were stuck shut, requiring a bit of a whack with a lump hammer to shift them.

What a team! There were 151 amphibians recovered - of which 11 were Great Crested (I was surprised by this as I still think its a little early in the season). Sadly, there were also 6 dead cresties and this really p***** me off. God knows what effect this has on the overall population.

The bucket was totally alive when we went to repatriate the catch in the nearby ponds and every single newt took to the water with great enthusiasm. We tried to photograph the vivid colours of the bellies before release but couldn't do this justice and as we didn't want to stress the newts anymore than needed, we left it.

Despite the stink, we all felt this was a good afternoons work. We also recorded great spotted woodpecker, yellowhammer, goldfinch, rook, blackbird, great tit and blue tit (was that also a chiffchaff calling?)

On the way back home, Trish mentioned a hoopoe one of her colleagues dads had seen in his Ashington garden yesterday! He took a photo so am looking forward to that!