Saturday 20 June 2015

Day Twenty - Rain, Rain go away

Day Twenty - Rain stopped play - well nearly

 The rain was around for most of the day

 Sometimes very heavy indeed

 But eventually the sun appeared

 We went out into the garden which was very wet.....

 ..... to search for cepaea nemoralis or striped snails.   These snails are found across the UK and are active from March to October.  They hibernate for the rest of the year. They are mostly found in hedgerows, gardens, compost heaps and the edges of fields.  Their colours can vary through yellow, beige or brown only to one stripe, three stripes or five stripes.  Apparently there are pink ones too and I think I remember seeing these once whilst walking on one of the Peak District trails.

 We found we had two varieties of this snail in our garden

The yellow only snails which are genetically most common and easy prey for birds.
 The other type was the five stripe or cepaea hortensis the white lipped striped snail

 We found far more of these then the yellow ones.  These snails survive better in the wild because they are harder to see in the grass.

More information  - here

4 comments:

  1. Really enjoying all of these posts, Rosie. That moth! Those damselflies! Fab. x

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like the shells on stripy snails. I think I should go out in my garden and look for the different t types. The lawn is covered with them and a sure feast for all the birds! x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like the stripy ones best!x

    ReplyDelete
  4. A great wild activity! I haven't seen many snails lately, even on the rainy days - I went out and looked earlier but didn't see a single snail!

    ReplyDelete