Above: plenty of snails, earwigs and woodlice (Not for the squeamish type)
And there weren't just snails either. Earwigs and woodlice too. Its lucky they were snails, because it gave me a chance to get my camera before they disappeared. Its a wonder I had never noticed them before. I'm not sure if this has been known to happen before, but I must admit that I never knew that some of our bird food was being eaten by snails. They obviously have similar tastes to our garden birds. There were quite a few of them too. They must only eat very tiny portions of it though because in the morning, I could honestly not notice that any of the fat had gone. I thought that snails were only interested in green plants in the garden. Clearly not!
I have seen some of our daytime pests, eg squirrels. I am guessing that these snails, earwigs and woodlice are trying to avoid being eaten by their predators. The squirrels certainly make themselves obvious by rustling loudly in the trees and scaring the birds off. The creatures seem to be a bit more discreet. If you look carefully, you will spot some woodlice on the fence in the picture below.
Please comment if you have had any similar experiences. I definately found this strange.
4 comments:
I had the same prob this morning on my seed feeder a snail had blocked up one of the holes, how my feeders are set up its a wonder how it even got there.
Mike
thanks for the feedback. Hmmm... I have never seen a snail on our seed feeder. I hope they don't take too much of the fat block. I will post soon on another slimy customer, but a nicer one!
Joe
Hi again Joe, this posting made me smile :-D
At night I go out too and check/feed guinea pigs and that is when I discovered we had hedgehogs visiting last year. It's nice to go out into the garden at that time of night isn't it?
Okay to answer your question - yes these slugs and snails do get around in my garden too. I have never seen one up at my feeders but see them at sunflower hearts which I scatter on the ground for the birds.
You will laugh at this - I also see them on digestive biscuits that I have put out for the hedgehogs some nights :-D
Argh.. but two nights ago I spotted a slug having climbed up and in the top story of our guinea pig hutch!! That I'm not so amused by!
Hi again Shirl,
Yes, I was very surprised to see the snails on the fat feeder. They all come out at night to avoid being eaten by the birds.
I agree that its great to get out in the evenings. I have seen and heard foxes and mice. Our rabbits are very active in the evenings and its great to watch them run around frantically.
Now, hedgehogs. I have never seen these in our garden but I might get a hedgehog hibernation box to help attract them.
Thanks
Joe
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