Living in the moment with the Snails

During my walk on September 8, 2022, I stopped to photograph the landscape. Then, as if I had received a mental message, I looked down and saw snails. I was inches away from them and backed up to get a better look at them. For about 30 minutes, I stayed watching them live and photographing them. And to live me too, at their peaceful pace. In all, four adult snails and more than a dozen small snails of various sizes.

"The first snail lived about 550 million years ago on the seafloor and evolved into land snails about 286 million years ago when they moved to land and developed lungs for breathing." Snails

The snail is born with its shell and this one protects him from its predators. Their eyes are at the end of its two long tentacles. Sometimes a snail looked at me with one eye. I watched them slowly move forward. "His body is a mass of muscle that contains all of his vital organs. It's called a foot. [The snail] travels one millimeter per second.

Having snails in your garden indicates that your soil is of good quality, the snail detects all traces of pollution very quickly. Some feed on earthworms, slugs, larvae eggs and various corpses. Others prefer plant debris, dead wood, moss and fungi." L’escargot.

I was amazed when I saw my photos. On the plexiglass surface, the snails were drawing abstract shapes. And, so beautiful to see the adult snail watching the baby one crawling.

My encounter with these snails is the most inspiring sight I have seen in my life so far. The snails probably don't have the keen eyesight of eagles, but they really seem to enjoy the moment.

Here my best photos of this single encounter. Depending on the place, the colors were pale or dark.

After about 20 minutes with the snails, I was off to continue my walk, but the snails remained in my thoughts. I then turned around to see the snails again. These four photos, including the photo of the snail looking at me from the other side of the plexiglass, were taken thirty minutes later. One of the snails was in its shell and the mist on the plexiglass was starting to evaporate with the morning heat. This time I stayed for 10-15 minutes looking at them.

September 9, 2022

The next day, I went back there. Two adult grasshoppers were walking on the plexiglass fence and two small snails tucked into their shells. I of course photographed the snails and grasshoppers which I will show you in a future project.

Most grasshoppers are polyphagous, meaning they eat vegetation from several plant sources, but some are omnivorous.

September 12, 2022

Three days later, I returned to this place. This time there were four adult snails, the two small snails and a baby snail. I don't know if the snails are the ones I saw on September 8. And I don't know if the grasshoppers ate the other little snails either (or if they went somewhere else in the park), but if they did, I would think it was a shame but normal thinking about of the animal food chain. And, less cruel than the cooks who boil them for 60 minutes for a "gourmet meal."

If you see snails, think of the snails I photographed, because I think they are the same everywhere, it's just the landscapes that are different.