spring comes alive in the pond

So many newts! I spent quite a lot of time hanging out by my pond today. LOTS of tadpoles and eggs and mating newts. At one point I decided I wanted a closer look, so I plucked this little guy out of the water. Lo and behold . . . he had a tiny leech on him. I plucked the leech off and threw it back in the pond (to go suck on another newt, I'm sure), but not before taking a quick photo of them.