Their world

Today has been a day of rain, interspersed with brief spells of sunshine but never for long. In the downpours which make people complain, our back gardens change- insects like bees and butterflies must take cover or risk a life-threatening soaking, whereas for animals like slugs and snails, it's an opportunity to come out of daytime hiding to search for food and a mate.

Here is a large red slug (Arion ater) amongst snails- a garlic snail (Oxychilus alliarius) in the foreground, a copse snail (Arianta arbustorum) on a collision course with the slug and a brown-lipped snail/ grove snail (Cepaea nemoralis) in the background. Together they are taking advantage of the wet conditions to emerge to feed upon the last few seeds I had put out for the birds this morning.