At A Snail’s Pace – My Nature Journal
Today’s nature journal summary
| Date | June 01, 2022 |
| Time | Around 7:45pm ET |
| Habitat Explored | Floodplain forest, oak and mixed hardwoods, along a sluggish creek. |
| Weather | Sunny, sun dropping towards horizon, passing clouds |
| Temperature (Fahrenheit / Celsius) | 85°F / 29°C |
| Wind | None, air was very still and sultry |
| Humidity | 74% |
| Animals Encountered | American Robins (Turdus migratorius) American Crows Northern Cardinals Various sparrows Snail (unable to identify to species) |
| What I Saw | Several common types of birds during my nature walk – Cardinals, Robins, and Crows. Lots of sparrows flitting around. A large snail of unknown species. |
| What I Heard | Very quiet in the woods. Heard Northern Cardinals and crows calling but otherwise very quiet. Not even any wind sounds as the air was very still and humid. |
Today’s Nature Journal Photos
The big event of this nature walk was spotting the snail crawling across the path. Several things surprised me about this snail.
Snail’s shell was quite large
The first thing that surprised me about this snail was the size of its shell. The shell was about the diameter of a large, old-fashioned marble, but much thinner than it was tall.
I could tell it was a “right-handed” or “dextral” snail. Snails can be either “right-handed” or “left-handed”. These terms refer to the direction in which an individual snail’s shell coils.
In order to determine a snail’s “handedness”, you must first understand the terms zoologists use to describe their shells. Here is a list of terms, along with their definitions.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Aperture | The opening in the snail’s shell from which the living animal’s head and foot protrudes. |
| Apex | The smallest and oldest whorl. The starting point of the shell’s spiral. |
| Body whorl | The last and largest whorl. Also the youngest whorl of the shell. Terminates in the aperture. |
| Columella | The central axis around which the shell’s whorl spiral. |
| Spire | The whorls above the body whorl. |
To determine the “handedness” of a snail, imagine that the apex is pointing straight up. Now look at the position of the aperture. If the aperture is to the right of the apex, the snail is “right-handed” or “dextral”. If the aperture is to the left of the apex, the snail is “left-handed” of “sinistral”.
Snail’s shell was intricately patterned
The second thing that surprised me about this snail was the intricate patterns on its shell. The spiral side of its shell showed beautiful, asymmetric patterns of dark brown against light brown. The pattern was especially visible on the large, smooth body whorl.
But the real beauty of this snail’s shell pattern showed up when the non-spiral side of the shell was lit from behind by the setting sun. The dark brown blotches stood out from the tan background and the shell looks surprisingly pretty in the slanted yellow light.
Snail’s cephalic tentacles were very long
The third thing that surprised me about this snail was the length of its cephalic tentacles. Cephalic tentacles extend out from the snail’s head, come in pairs, and bear the snail’s eyes at their tips.
Since snails can retract their entire bodies into their shells when needed, they can also retract their cephalic tentacles closer to their heads at will. This snail was clearly searching its environment as it crawled along. It kept adjusting the length of its tentacles as it moved along and controlled each tentacle separately, sometimes retracting one without adjusting the other.
Snail was active during the day
The last thing that surprised me about this snail is that I saw it at all. Snails are mostly nocturnal, so I rarely see them out and about. Plus, this was a hot day and the snail was crawling across hot pavement. Snails’ mucus layer protects them against both dehydration and conditions that could hurt their soft bodies, but I still thought it odd that this snail was crawling around at all. , and
It might have been searching for a place to hide but I couldn’t help but wonder what made it leave its old hiding place in the first place. Most snails spend the daylight hours retracted safely into their shells, behind the operculum that seals off the apertures. They rest hidden under leaf litter, behind tree bark, or in some other sheltered location out of sight of predators. They emerge after sunset to feed.
Perhaps this snail was simply the gastropod equivalent of an “early bird”.
