Well I got a bit of a shock the other evening! There I was lifting more of the pamment tiles when all of a sudden just where I was lifting I spotted what I thought was an old plastic toy animal. However, it was not there a second before. So I lifted it up only to find it was not plastic but real. My next assumption was that it was well and truly dead – then in blinked at me and I nearly dropped it in shock!
To cut rather a long story short, I ended up carefully collecting 6 newts that appeared out of no where into a small pot. Now what? Well I got off the shelf one of our rather excellent series of books by Collins, however, I shall post a separate post about them. Next thing – I called a friend 
!
A few of them were incredibly small. The close up pictures have they tip of a key and ball point pen to give you an idea of scale.
It appears these rather slow and docile amphibians are Smooth Common Newts, Triturus Vulgaris, and they had somehow managed to work there way indoors and were hibernating under our floor tiles. I have heard of find mice indoors, but newts!? Maybe we have a more serious damp problem then we thought 
Anyway, I found a new home for them under a nice damp log, and I trust they will be very happy there.
Tags: Pamment Tiles, Smooth Common Newts, Wildlife
Categories: Living the Country Life, Posts with Photos, Wildlife
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Cool!
Small nob of butter, crushed garlic… light pan fry