All our newts have a showy aquatic phase and a drab terrestrial phase. We are more likely to find them in the terrestrial phase. Great Crested Newts are always identifiable by their size - up to 16 cm long. You would be very lucky indeed to find a GCN on a Toad Patrol.

 

Palmate and Smooth Newts are difficult to tell apart in the terrestrial phase, though Smooth are usually a bit larger. The best way to get a clear ID is to look underneath at their throats - usually possible when carefully handling them. Palmates have a pale pink, unspotted throat; Smooths have different degrees of spotting.