We’ve had a very mild winter, even verging on ridiculously warm at times. Even the gray days haven’t been horribly cold, so B and I would sometimes wander about even if it was gloomy. Thus, this January baby snail on a paper birch I shall now show you.
I had to stop and take twelve million photos, of course, because it was totes adorbs.
This particular park along North Creek has a lovely line of paper birches. I go nuts for these things. I’ve been a fan of paper since I was a little kid, and the idea of a tree that has paper-thin bark you can actually peel off and write on makes me squee. It’s one of my favorite things ever. I could probably have occupied my entire afternoon peeling the thin, crackly bark off of the birch that had blown down, but I try not to make B suffer for my obsessions. He did have to indulge me several minutes of enthusiastic peeling.
I know. I’m weird. Here, look at the snail again, it’ll make you feel better.
And the texture of that bark. Delicious! Oops, I probably shouldn’t use that adjective near a critter whose relatives may have been escargot. Although I doubt this is an escargot-type snail. But aren’t some places overrun with the descendants of snails that were brought over and raised specifically because they’re good for escargot? I’d swear I’ve heard that somewhere.
All I can say is, nobody’d better make escargot out of this adorable baby!
I love how smooth the bark is on those buff-colored, freshly-peeled bits. So soft! I’ll bet it feels good on a snail’s foot, too.
For those who love the bark as much as I do, here is a close-up with snail, showing the neato patterns. I’m not sure what those rough oblongs accomplish. Anybody here a tree expert?
I love it.
Anyway, I’m sure this is some common garden-variety snail, but if anyone cares to identify the exact species, perhaps we can learn a bit of their history. You can find more pictures here. And, for our final photo, I’ll show you just how eensy-weensy this little delight is.
Daw!
Looks similar to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theba_pisana
Another exotic, unfortunately.
The common brown garden snails are also exotic, and were indeed imported for escargot.
Those are lenticels, used for gas exchange through the bark.