It rained last week. It doesn’t rain enough around here. We had 4 dry years. This winter has been better, but not enough to end the drought.
When it does rain, the landscape changes remarkably and these little snails come out all over the place. This one stuck his head out, but soon retracted it when I put the camera too close.
The shell is surprisingly detailed and beautiful, even if you find them under every tree. Perfect for the Mundane Monday Challenge #58.
A Thousand Finds 
Great images, do you know what type of snail it is? I have a snail blog and I would love to add your image if that would be ok? I would credit you of course and link your page. Let me know if that would be ok and if so any info you can share on the location where you took the pictures would be great to add.
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Hello Snape! Thanks for stopping by. I wish I knew what type of snail it is. The location is Shoreline Park in Mountain View CA, in the SF Bay Area. I think it is likely to be a European garden snail, Helix aspersa. These are common in the area, especially after a rain. They were brought to CA over 100 years ago, perhaps as a food source. The reason I’m not sure about this is that all the pictures I can find of Helix aspersa on the web have darker brown shells. Another possibility might be the Coast Range Shoulderband, Helminthoglypta nickliniana, but the band in the spiral of the shell is darker in those snails. What do you think? Have you ever seen a snail with markings like this one? And sure, please share the image and link to the page. Maybe one of your viewers can identify it more certainly.
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I believe it is a milk snail, which would make sense for the area. Here’s a link to a site with a good image of the milk snail. http://blog.travelmarx.com/2013/10/life-in-snail-lane.html?m=1
The second imagine looks very close.
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Yes, it definitely looks like a milk snail! And the image you link to was taken in the same park as I took this one. It’s called Otala lactea and is originally from Spain. http://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/202861-Otala-lactea
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I’m glad we were able to ID, that’s always exciting. I just updated my blog with your snail if you want to take a look on imaginesnail.wordpress.com
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perfect it is! What a work of art .. I hardly never noticed shells before we moved by to sea, and I have started admiring even the snails (to my kids’ uttermost pleasure)
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The details on the shell is really nice. I wonder how those patterns are formed!! Hope that this year you get enough rain.
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Isn’t nature’s artwork amazing…
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I know, not really my mundane at all, even though they are everywhere
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