Sir,
Our garden joins to open fields in Gotherington. We installed a 10 x 6 pond here 40 years ago and to encourage wildlife we have never had any goldfish. We quickly had a population of about 20 each of great crested and smooth newts which has been fairly stable, and breeding over the years, but only rare visits from frogs and never any frogspawn.
This year we have not seen a single newt following 2 or 3 years of declining population. This may be connected to our purchasing 10 sticklebacks for the pond around that time. These are healthy and breeding but not noticeably increasing in numbers.
PS. It has been a very good year for dragonflies at this pond.
Regards
Norman Peak