ID Please

[robinm]

Can anyone identify this for me please. The photo was taken last weekend at Dungeness RSPB. Size was about 3 inches at most from head to tail.

Cheers,

[jayhunter]

I think it is a sand lizard.

[robinm]

I think it is a sand lizard.
I did wonder about sand lizard, but I thought it was a bit small and there were no markings to speak of. Also, although I believe there is a programme which may reintroduce the species I thought it was extinct in Kent.

[jayhunter]

The only other thing I could think of was a smooth or common newt. But didn't know if it was close to a pond or water, and I couldn't make out if it's feet were webbed.

[robinm]

It was quite close to one of the pits at Dungeness. If you don't know the area it is shingle with large pits full of water. Here is another picture where you can see the feet more clearly.

[jayhunter]

Feet are not webbed but it definitely looks more like a common newt than a lizard.

[robinm]

Feet are not webbed but it definitely looks more like a common newt than a lizard.
I think common newt is probably right.

Now I think about it I had a common/smooth newt in the garden earlier this year that was ided in BF. Apparently outside the breeding season they adopt a non-aquatic form which looks like a lizard. I think that is what I have photographed here.

Thanks for you help.

[Nightranger]

I did wonder about sand lizard, but I thought it was a bit small and there were no markings to speak of. Also, although I believe there is a programme which may reintroduce the species I thought it was extinct in Kent.

I suspect this is a common newt as per other contributors but it is a very unusual leucistic individual. I once saw a gorgeous female reed bunting demonstrating this condition (part-way ablinistic) at Pennington Flash. Blondes really are attractive - especially in reed buntings. ;)

[Joern Lehmhus]

It is definitely a common newt (Triturus vulgaris); this somehow fragile appearance with these big bulging eyes is typical newt, and the colour size and structure exclude other newts (well perhaps not Triturus helveticus, but that species I have only seen in spring in the water and there all newt species look different from their "land forms")

[robinm]

Ian and Joern, thanks. I think we have a consensus on common newt.

I agree on the colour - it was stunning. The photo is a good representation of real life and is not an effect.

[jayhunter]

Cheers for that Robin, took me back fifty years to sitting on the banks of a pond with a newting net made from a bamboo pole piece of wire and a bit of my mum's stocking.

[robinm]

Cheers for that Robin, took me back fifty years to sitting on the banks of a pond with a newting net made from a bamboo pole piece of wire and a bit of my mum's stocking.
You too ;)

Cheers and thanks,

[Geoff Simpson]

It's a female Common (Smooth Newt) the location where forund is also a give away as the closely related Palmate Newt is not found at Dungerness.

Geoff
www.geoffsimpson.co.uk