Sleep?

So the workload has really piled up dramatically here at Oxford (I had 1500 pages to read last night), so it makes a lot more sense to cut my losses and at least have a good time among this disaster of a class.

Thus, I emailed a guy I had been in contact with previously to go out for some newt surveys. On Wednesday, he picked me up at 7 pm at a train station in Oxford to head out and survey some ponds for a few species of newts.

Basically, this guy (Rod D'Ayala) is an ecological consultant. One of Britain's three native species of newts (the Great Crested Newt, Triturus cristatus) is heavily protected, and any development plans that intend on disrupting their habitat have to jump through a bunch of hoops before proceeding. Rod's job is making sure that they maintain the health of newt (and other species) populations despite the alterations of the land. In this particular case, a middle-aged couple wanted to redirect a stream in their yard that was causing flooding during heavy rains. Unfortunately, the stream fed into a healthy pond for Great Crested Newts. Rod to the rescue.

It's amazing how well these species can hang on in urban areas. Below is the pond in the yard of this couple. Notice the mowed grass, lack of vegetative cover, and lack of much woodland surrounding it (these newts, unlike ours, migrate out of the pond after every reproductive bout).

As soon as the sun set, we hit the edges of the ponds with our torch lights (British phrase for powerful flashlights). Dozens of Great Crested Newts and Smooth Newts (Lissotriton vulgaris)--another, smaller species of newt--were seen swimming in the shallows. In fact, one Great Crested Newt was actually observed laying her eggs on a leaf, which they then proceed to fold over to protect the egg.

After doing a torch-survey, we set out "bottle-traps". These function the same way (but less effectively) as our minnow traps, funneling animals in. However, Britain hasn't seemed to have caught on to our superior methods, yet. Still, they work decently.

I arrived home around midnight, worked for four hours on Modernist Lit, slept for an hour, and then met Rod back at the train station. A forty-minute ride later and we were back at the pond, ready to check our traps. Much to my delight, they contained many Great Crested Newts--males, females, and juveniles.

[Interestingly, this species is quite common throughout much of England (especially Oxfordshire), and I'm not sure why it receives heavier protection than the other species of newts.]

Several of the European species of newts are famous for the intricate tail and back crests that the males boast during the reproductive season. Presumably, these are used to waft pheromones towards females. Unfortunately, the crests flop down on land, and they're rather unimpressive. Google "Triturus cristatus" and you're see better aquarium photographs.

A large male Great Crested Newt

Beautiful belly

Oddly, although we saw dozens during our night-time search, no Smooth Newts showed up in the bottle-traps. I wasn't leaving without a photograph, though, and I dipnetted around until I came up with a pretty male (note the floppy crest, as well).

All in all, it was a wonderful (and much needed break) from my class, and I enjoyed seeing both species (2/3 of all of GB's salamander species!). I was frustrated by the shitty photographic conditions, but I'll be back, hopefully. To make life even sweeter, my class (despite not having read most of the books) is going well, and I think I'll survive.