Looks like it is just us two here. It looks like they lay them on the underneath of the leaf. How do you know it is ready to hatch?

That is a lovely picture. I haven't seen a newt in my pond for a long time.(well since making the last pond) I guess they could be in there but I haven't seen any. Saying that, I have a silver ghostKoi that I have only seen twice in the last 3 years. He is now completely black and not silver anywhere so is very difficult to see. I was shocked when I saw him last year as I had presumed something had taken him. I couldn't get over this strange black fish that suddenly appeared one day.

How lovely. Snowtree came to get some sticklebacks this week and she was telling me that in her pond she has quite a few newts that have just immediately moved in.. I want them myself. Here is a link that might be useful: Alisons pond and garden

I am confused. First the tadpoles--we have loads of tadpoles, and there were 3 hatchings. The first was the lot that were taken indoors until they got bigger, and they are whoppers now in the pond and have their hind legs. There were then two natural hatchings in the pond, about 3 weeks apart. What I am confused about is the size of the tadpoles---there is such variation! Some are quite a decent size and then vary down to a very small size, like the size they are after 3 weeks--but it has been at least 8 weeks. Do small tadpoles make small frogs? It is about availability of food? I thought the small ones might be toad tadpoles which hatch later, but they have the mottled colour to them rather than being pure black. Then there is the toads, I have yet to see toadspawn despite close inspection, but there are quite deep spots in the pond, and thats where most of the critters lie. But I have seen toadlets in the past that seem far to small to have made the 1/2 mile journey from the lake.There are a lot of toads in the garden, and are now making themselves known, so I assume most of them spawn elsewhere. But there have been about 3 close to the pond all spring. So is there spawn that I can't get sight of, or are they very very intrepid? And finally the newts. There are a few of them (more each year), and think they are the common variety, and both males and females as far as I can tell. But I have never seen spawn, despite a lot of looking in both day and nighttime. Is newtspawn very noticable? There is a lot of waterstarwart anf other oxygenators, but I have never seen and folded over leaves from where I can see it from the bank. I have never seen newtspawn in situ, so I don't know what I am looking for really. The stickelback are now hatching, so spring has really come. So the Kingfisher didn't get them all!