6455 – courting newts – garden, bristol – ink pen – A6 sketchbook

Seeing 4 newts chasing each other around the deep end of the pond mid afternoon. Not able to watch immediately but later sketching a couple of them. The female very fat around the middle and has a swollen lipped effect.
The male much more dramatically marked with big spots, which are especially pronounced on the lower tail where they are against a luminous bluish pale background. He chased the female around and would suddenly dart ahead of her and twist his tail around at 90 degrees with a threatening kind of swish. Must be impressive from her perspective.