Buffalo Snapshot: A Snail's Pace
Up close and personal with the world's weirdest creature
Walking this morning I saw a snail.
I quickly snapped it with my Seek app and sure enough, it was a Brown-Lipped Snail. The same snail I have seen at Tifft Nature Preserve and everywhere else.
Sometimes I wonder: Why does it always have to be the same species of cypress, the same species of moss, the same species of snail? You would think there would be a couple of species, you know? But anyway.
I do not think I ever saw a snail this up close and personal.
That long slimy snail body. Those antennae they have. I always see pictures and cartoons. I never see the real thing.
I shot a quick video of the snail moving across the stone walk. Quick video, listen to me. Nothing is quick about this video.
It goes at a snail’s pace!
I am calling this post Wildlife Wednesday because I am trying to get things down to a bit of a system. Every day when I write it feels as if I drop down to Substack out of the blue and I have to think what to write.
If Wednesdays could be for wildlife that would settle it for one day. Plus, I always like seeing animals and writing about them.
We can try this for a few weeks and see where it goes.
Starting out at this snail’s pace!
I Wonder As I Wander…
The Lion Gets a Cuddle
Saturday, all the rain got to me and I had to get outdoors. When it looked as if it might not rain in the next few minutes, I braved it. I had to get out, breathe some air, talk to people. So I went to the zoo.
We're Going In: The Secret Life of the Aviary
Hope is the thing with feathers, wrote Emily Dickinson. And it is with a hopeful heart that we approached, with awe, the Buffalo Zoo’s Aviary.
Mary Kunz Goldman is known in Buffalo for having written the Buzz Column, a popular feature in The Buffalo News, as well as another hit column, “100 Things Every Western New Yorker Should Do At Least Once.” She is the author of two books, “Pennario” and “Sketches of Buffalo.” Enjoy her independent Substack publication at MaryKunzGoldman.Substack.com. New stories appear just about every day!
Are snails uncommon in Buffalo? If you ever go to the Oregon coast, especially if it's damp (which is most of the time) you'll see millions of giant, ugly gray slugs. Come to think of it, I'm not sure they have many snails in shells. There are lots of snails in California. And if you dig deep enough under the ground in Arizona, there are snails and giant toads that only come out every few years during floods. It's like the Night of the Living Dead!