Can solar pool blankets keep ponds warmer?

[Wayfarin]

They can climb in. The ones I put in there are not the only ones that end up in there. Others come on their own.

They can go through the holes in the solar cover that is only on that pool in winter, if they need to get out of the water. In summer, they can easily get onto the railing around the pool, or sit on a lily pad. The two in there now spent all winter in there, so they obviously didn't drown.

After giving it some thought, the sides may be only 30", not 31", but I doubt that it makes much difference to the newts and frogs.

Is it possible that the ones that show up in the pool are descended from the ones you added, breeding on their own and somehow skipping the red eft stage as a survival strategy?

I'm not suggesting that red-spotted newts might drown, as they are capable of being completely aquatic in aquariums lacking land areas. I'm suggesting that, if they breed, the larvae will transform into red efts, which might drown since they are clumsy swimmers.

It may be that red-spotted newts can skip the eft stage and transform from larvae into aquatic adults with lungs when they cannot climb out of a pool. This could be a survival strategy allowing them to breed without leaving the water to live on land.

 

[WaterGardener]

There are no more in there now than there were in late fall when we covered that pool. So I suspect they are the same ones, and they look like adults.

I doubt they would skip a stage in development.