I too have now received the book, and to me its perfect!. I found it easy to read, the pictures are lovely and the imfo has already potentially stopped me making mistakes. I am now more aware of what I need to make my pond newt friendly. Last weekend I fished out the dead leaves ( mainly from my laural tree) , thinned out some of the pond weed and spotted a healthy frog ( lurking under the slabs) and found 2 inch goldfish. I have now made note of various plants now to place around the pond area and basically can't wait to get started!!. I have never seen any sign of newt in my garden..but supect that the frog must have travelled from various ponds in the area ( none in my stretch of road) .I had aquired 3 from my parents 2 years ago. The stinky cats caught at least 3 last year ( never knew that frogs screamed , I had thought they had grabbed the neighbours dwarf rabbit!!) but I had a various number of small to adult frogs lurking in the garden.
This evening I toodled out to see if there where any more frogs in the pond and as my torch went across the water I saw a newt dart under the stone slabs!!! . Needless to say the photo's where studied and I am pretty sure I have a smooth newt.I shall be out later tonight to see if I can spot it!! I am ridiculously excited!! Many many thanks James.
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