Escargot for Breakfast (video)

Song Thrush using a gravelled part of the garden as its anvil to crack open a snail shell:



Sound track:
Psychedelic Crater, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Friday at the Flicks: Above and Below a Snail

This is something I have been wanting to film for quite a while and was in the way of an experiment. I couldn't find a spare piece of glass to film through from underneath so ended up with a section of clear plastic which I cleaned up as best I could. This was the rough and ready set up in the kitchen:



Fortunately the monitor screen on the 70D can be flipped round which enabled me to see what the camera could see without having to stand on my head. It took longer to find a snail than it did to set up and film. A few days ago, after heavy rain, I couldn't move for them covering the paths. The day I chose for the experiment was hot and I had to look under endless pots and stones before finding one.

The 70D was used to film from underneath and I used the pocket Nikon hand held to film from above:



Sparkly bits are just reflections of the lighting.
The sound track is 'Stale Mate' by Jingle Punks from the YouTube Audio Library.
When I find a piece of glass I will have another go at this as the plastic was still a bit misty which blurred the fine detail but you can see the 'foot' rippling as it moves forwards.

Wordless Wednesday

Garden Snail

Friday at the Flicks - Baby Snail

Spotted this small garden snail last week gliding its way across the green wheelie bin. Love the way those eyes on stalks can look in different directions:




Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you wherever you are.

Tiny But Perfectly Formed

Just about to put some weeds in the green waste wheelie bin when I spotted this tiny snail on the lid. Fully extended is was no more than 12 mm long. The body was almost transparent as it stretched out moving from rain drop to rain drop.





I was surprised how fast it could move. Wait for Friday to see that.

Small crops from photos taken with the Nikon S9050.

Friday at the Flicks - Garden Snail - Juvenile Birds

I was partly wrong the other day when I said only slugs and snails like all the wet weather we have been having. I forgot to include the Blackbirds. They love it when the ground becomes waterlogged as it drives the worms to the surface!

Here is the snail I saw the other day:



There have been quite a few different fledgelings visiting the garden, usually with the adults:



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Something Has to Like This Weather

Hardly a day seems to go by without several doses of heavy rain. Today it was a case of sunny intervals mixed with showers where the rain came down like stair rods. The only creatures in my garden which seem to enjoy continual damp conditions are slugs and snails, like this one spotted as the rain stopped for a few minutes:

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Great, all five guesses last week were correct so Adrian, John, Keith, Wilma and Glo are all awarded my congratulations and a   for correctly identifying the garden snail.

Yes Wilma. That was the eye stalk. Once again the photo was taken with the TZ7 and small crops used. Thank you Glo for the witty explanation as to why you were later than usual. (Follow the link in last Monday's comments)

 

On to this week's puzzle picture. I am sure you will not need any clues from Miss Piggy to help with the identification of this creature.

Guess What:


 Just for fun. No prizes except a virtual gold star for a correct identification.

Garden Snails and a Dragonfly

When Bobby went for his last look round his empire a couple of nights ago I spotted two brown garden snails crossing the concrete. The ground was perfectly dry so I was somewhat surprised they had chosen that route.Also they took no notice of us. In daylight hours they would have probably retreated into their shells but these two kept going and provided me with my first opportunity to take some photographs of garden snails.



Normally thrusting a camera within a couple of inches would make the snail withdraw its tentacles but this time I could clearly see the eyes on the end of those long stalks. In fact it was the length of the tentacles which had first caught my attention.



 I have never really taken much notice or interest in snails but on finding a great site ( snail-world.com ) was fascinated by the complexity of their anatomy.

Yesterday I notice one of the rare visits to my garden by a Common Darter Dragonfly which rested for a short while on some gravel long enough for me to take a few photographs.