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| Well here’s something I didn’t expect to turn up on our doorstep. Fearing for its future in a back garden shared with chickens, cats and a very large puppy a neighbour brought it around in a jam jar. Unfortunately our garden complete with a large pond full of hungry Goldfish, Orfe and various other fairground rejects is hardly any safer. |
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| The nearest colony of Smooth Newts is the small, conservation pond at Chorlton Water Park. However, I’ve not seen any there for years or to be more precise since a Heron took up semi-permanent residence. Even the frogs no longer survive long enough to breed. |
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| Still being the hard-core conservationists we are the next morning me and Jake were checking out another local pond in a small area of wet woodland on the opposite side of the river. |
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| The Newt was carefully transferred to a new container containing pond water, moss, a couple of rocks to hide under and a few choice slugs and worms. Little did it know it but it’d soon be free to once again roam the Mersey Valley.
The next morning we woke up ready to release the newt. We lifted the rock up – no sign of it perhaps it was hiding under the moss. Nope not there either. Under the leaves – no. Looks like our Newt has decided that our garden will be just fine. |