Sunday snails

After several heavy thunderstorms this afternoon, the sun came out, so we decided to take an early evening trip to Pulpit Hill and Grangelands. It's another of our favourite places, with stunning views and lovely Roman snails.

The Roman snails were mooching around in the woods and out on the open grassland. No sign of any of them paired up, but they were very active after all the rain.

We saw lots of slugs, both the big black ones and the yellow slugs. They seemed to be feasting on the dog poo that inconsiderate dog owners had left in the woods. Never say slugs don't have an important role to play - they're woodland pooper scoopers!

Cleaning up the dog poo

Yellow slug

We saw a variety of other snails including Door snails and Brown-lipped snails.

Tiny Door snail

Brown-lipped snail

The skies n the distance were still stormy and the sun rays were peeping through the clouds. We counted 22 Red Kites over the paddocks next to Grangelands, flying low over the grass and occasionally landing on the fields. I think they must have been looking for worms after the rain.

Bug Mad Girl found several Bloody-nosed Beetles, sweet little black beetles with amazing antennae that look like their made of beads.

Bloody-nosed Beetle

Mating Bloody-nosed Beetles

She also found part of a jaw bone that's had to come home to add to her collection of treasures.

Jaw bone with some very wobbly teeth

We're very lucky to have such a fantastic site just up the road!