Monsters in the swamp (Part 3)

We’re going on a Newt hunt!

Newts can be hard to film! Watch the video carefully and you should be able to see some newts but they are not always easy to see. You might want to go back and watch some parts again.

There are several types of newts in the UK – use this guide to see if you can identify these ones.

Newts are amphibians.

  • Do you know what an amphibian is?
  • What is the difference between an amphibian and a reptile?

It was difficult to film the newts until the very end – I think those two newts got fed up with the camera and chased it off!

Monsters in the swamp

Monsters in the swamp (or frogs in the pond!)

On Thursday 25 February our pond errupted with activity! The frogs went crazy and left us loads of frog spawn. The lovely sunshine was warming the water and the frogs and so they started to mate and leave us the next generation of frogs. Frogs are amphibians and so they are cold blooded, they rely on the warming weather in spring to help them become active after the cold of the winter.

  • Find out what an amphibian is
  • What does it mean to be cold blooded? We are warm blooded – what does that mean about the way we live throughout the year compared with frogs?

I counted at least 40 frogs in our pond on Thursday, many of them will now move on to our neighbour’s pond which is more shaded than our pond and so takes longer to warm up.

The earliest date we have seen frogs laying frog spawn in our pond was 14th February – St Valentine’s Day!