Winter Palmates

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   Spotted these three in the pond's canal this evening. I thought there would be some about with the temp being 8C. Actually there were two more close by but they weren't clear so I cropped them out. 

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Suzy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1443	Post Options Post Reply Quote Suzy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Winter Palmates Posted: 15 Dec 2018 at 9:23pm
	Spotted these three in the pond's canal this evening. I thought there would be some about with the temp being 8C. Actually there were two more close by but they weren't clear so I cropped them out.
	Suz

Suzy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1443	Post Options Post Reply Quote Suzy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 18 Dec 2018 at 12:18pm
	I won't post more images, but I saw seven palmates last night and a frog. Air temp 10deg. Makes me wonder just how many stay in the ponds overwinter.
	Suz

Suzy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1443	Post Options Post Reply Quote Suzy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 Nov 2020 at 3:23pm
	Was netting some duckweed out of one of the ponds today and had to stop as so many palmate young were in the weed. I put a few in a tomato paste lid before putting them back in the pond.
	Suz

Liz Heard Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Location: South West Status: Offline Points: 1424	Post Options Post Reply Quote Liz Heard Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 Nov 2020 at 6:59pm
	Very nice Suzy - thanks for sharing . I always have to sift carefully through the duckweed i remove too. As well as the newts, i regularly pull out ramshorn and various other pond snails, leeches, water slaters etc. If i don't regularly remove duckweed, then of course i can't pond watch. I hate that bloody stuff! Strangely, where i used to have Lemna gibba (the most common species), for some reason, in recent years this has been almost completely replaced by something - believe it or not - even worse. Namely, Lemna minuta which is very similar except it's even smaller and therefore more difficult to remove. AAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH! By the way, just been looking through some old pics and found this one of some frog spawn that's been eaten by smooth and palmate newts. If you look closely you can see the slightly dirty, ragged ruptures in the jelly made by 'torpedoeing' newts. They only eat the 'yolk'. Fussy buggers

Suzy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1443	Post Options Post Reply Quote Suzy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20 Nov 2020 at 2:24pm
	Yes I get hundreds of ramshorn snails, but I'm afraid I have to sacrifice lots of them to get rid of the duckweed. I don't worry too much as they increase like mad. Some things crawl back into the pond, some don't, when you put removals on the pond's edge. I now put the duckweed on a metal grill above a plastic trough and pour water over it and a lot of wildlife drops through for adding back to pond. However the newts are too tiny and fragile to survive when the duckweed is lifted out they kind of get trapped in the weight of it (as you will know). So I put the weed in water in a bowl to remove them, all a frig so I will leave it for now. Do you remember my photo (not great) of a band of palmates attacking some frogspawn? Although the photo didn't show too well, I saw about eleven newts before my torch scared them off - little bgrs! Your jelly photo is interesting. I'm not sure which duckweed I have, it's certainly a nuisance but I see the wildlife benefits e.g. to newt tadpoles.
	Suz

Suzy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1443	Post Options Post Reply Quote Suzy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 13 Jan 2021 at 12:39pm
	After several weeks of low temps, with ponds frozen some days, the temp has now shot up to double figures. I reckoned last night some newts might be mobile as it was 9 degs. Sure enough two palmates were seen in the pond weed - also a couple of backswimmers. The latter are active all year and just lay dormant under frozen water until it thaws and then they are on the prowl again.
	Suz

kevinb Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Location: England Status: Offline Points: 233	Post Options Post Reply Quote kevinb Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 Feb 2021 at 4:48pm
	I visited a group of small ponds in Maesteg a few weeks ago and counted 67 Palmates, the weather changed and the ponds froze so I had to wait for a revisit, I went there at night on Feb 5th and counted 286.

Suzy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1443	Post Options Post Reply Quote Suzy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 03 Mar 2021 at 3:59pm
	Wow Kevin what an enormous number of palmates! Just this afternoon I've seen a male tail wafting. The weather has taken a dive again here, but when it is settled and dry I will have a sit and pond watch for others.
	Suz

chubsta Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 26 Apr 2013 Location: Folkestone,Kent Status: Offline Points: 417	Post Options Post Reply Quote chubsta Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05 Mar 2021 at 9:11am
	Havent seen any at all here although that is possibly due to the pond being totally overgrown - was unable to clear the pond due to an injury last Autumn/Winter so I guess it is far too late to do it now?

Suzy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1443	Post Options Post Reply Quote Suzy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 hours 58 minutes ago at 4:49pm
	I've been sitting out pond watching on decent days - like today - definitely a several layer, hat and gloves job though. Today I saw at least six palmates, some with a mate. I saw one having a nibble at the frog spawn.
	Suz