Common Newt

I've yet to see one. Have been hoping to lure them to my pond.

It's the first one I've ever seen in the flesh which made it a bit of a novelty and why we brought it into the house, because it seemed so unusual.
My father-in-law commented that he hadn't seen one since he was about 16 years old (the house we live in now was where he grew up).
We did a bit of research on the net and let him go...

I thought for a minute that it was a gecko...just from a quick glance at the pic... I have a golden gecko and even the feet look the same..cept. the gecko has really interestingly textured toes!! look like the bottomof really expensive cross trainers!! I'm hoping to find some of these around my pond..have toads and frogs...

By looking at the pics myself, it does look quite large (my son is holding it in his hands, and he was quite a stocky fella a couple of years ago before he shot up).
I always wanted to see one when I was little,and never did.
The closest I came to anything like it was on a couple of trips to Italy when I was 13/14.They were scampering all around us in the gardens/pergolas etc and I think these were the common wall lizard or something (they were quite large in comparison).
Then one day, this little visitor came along in my own garden.
Got my wish !
So far I've had newt,frog,toad,hedgehog (it was a bit shy that one), house sparrows (in residence now), Purple Heron, slugs,snails,cat(s), the neighbour's dog and a peacock.
There have been other strange visitors to my garden, but I don't wish to discuss family barbecues at the moment !!

LoL!

He/She is gorgeous! The last time I saw a newt was in Germany in an outdoor swimming pool. Actually it was more like 20 or more of them swimming with us. Fun but weird at the same time :D

Napdar..you just crashed a newt convention...lol.

Love Lori~ knows her stuff

We rescued one of these, must have been in about November last, on the walk to school and took him/her straight in to meet the whole of Year 3, bcos I knew they'd love it. Then I had to run to get to work on time!
That was the first one I'd been able to pick up, felt a bit creepy when I first saw one in the garden years back with my 5 year old son. HE had to pick it up then, and we took it to a neighbour's pond area.
I think the one we found recently (on a busy footpath) would have been snapped up fast by a bird or squished underfoot. Maybe he was trying to hibernate in a silly place? Do they hibernate?
Not sure I could swim at a newt convention. Did they have mini-microphones, coloured balloons etc? Key-note speeches?