25 May 2024
“I just found a giant land snail in the woods!” I recently messaged a friend.
I sent her a photo, and she couldn’t disguise her disappointment that the snail’s golden-brown, spiral shell was only about the size of a quarter.
“That’s big for a snail!” I exclaimed. “Did you expect me to be able to ride it?”
When observing nature, so much depends on perspective. The more time I spend in the wilderness, the more I’m intrigued by the small things: the snails and dainty wildflowers and tiny mushrooms. When hiking, my eyes are often on the ground, and not just so I don’t trip over roots and rocks. I’m looking for the miniscule things in nature that I adore, and hoping to discover more.
With nature observation, perhaps it’s typical to go through phases. If so, this is my “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” era, in which I view everything as if I were smaller than an ant.
At times, my excitement seems to confound family and friends. After all, it’s not as if I’m discovering wild, exotic creatures in faraway lands. The snail I spied creeping over the forest floor near my home was likely a common species, but here’s the thing: it was new to me.
Aislinn Sarnacki holds a terrestrial snail in her hand to show the size of it on May 9, 2024, in the woods of Dedham. Credit: Courtesy of Aislinn Sarnacki
I’ll be honest — it was only a few years ago that I learned that Maine even had land snails. During my entire childhood playing outside, I never ran into one. Yet Maine is home to more than 70 species of terrestrial snails, according to the paper “Terrestrial snails and slugs of Maine,” written by Scott M. Martin and published by Northeastern Naturalist in 2000.
Who knew? Well, now you do.
Small things are easy to overlook. But that means, once you start looking, you’re apt to find many things that surprise and delight you.
I recently guided a nature walk at Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden, and I themed it “Small Wonders,” with a focus of enjoying the tiny joys of spring. To prepare, I slowly walked the center’s trails, pinpointing locations of wildflower patches, frogs, butterflies and water bugs.
I had to conduct this scouting mission just a day before the event because things in nature change so quickly. In the space of a day, a mushroom can pop up or a flower can bloom.
The day of the guided walk was overcast and warm. Our first stop was a frog pond, where the ten of us gathered on a wooden platform and watched green frogs surface amongst lily pads and other water plants. My hope was to find some caddisfly larvae, which are cooler than they sound.
Startflowers are in bloom on May 22, 2024, in the woods of Dedham. Credit: Courtesy of Aislinn Sarnacki
Like many insects, the caddisfly starts its life as aquatic larvae. However, it does something special. To protect its soft, long body, it gathers materials from its environment and builds a portable house – like a snail’s shell. In a pond, it might pick up sunken twigs, pieces of aquatic plants, pebbles and sand, then bind those materials together using silk. As a result, each caddisfly creates a unique case.
As you can imagine, these cases make them difficult to spot. So, to find examples in the pond, I had to stare down into the shallows and hope to detect movement. (Talk about pressure.) A few other waterbugs caught my attention before I saw it – a cluster of vegetation moving slowly along a submerged stick.
I filled a shallow tupperware container with pond water, then scooped up the caddisfly so everyone could get a good look at it. To our delight, the insect actually crawled half-way out of the case and waved around its legs before retreating back inside.
After we were done marveling at aquatic insects and frogs, we continued our walk along the edge of a field, where tree swallows poked their shiny blue heads out of nesting boxes. Among the many plants of the field, we spotted the delicate white blossoms of wild strawberries and low-bush blueberries. Tiny bluets and violets dusted the path, but it was in the forest where we found the best flowers.
Sunlight illuminates a painted trillium on May 22, 2024, in the woods of Dedham. Credit: Courtesy of Aislinn Sarnacki
May and June are the best months to find a variety of woodland flowers in Maine. On that particular walk, we found clusters of red trilliums, which are large, maroon, three-petaled flowers. You may have heard them called “stinking Benjamins” in reference to their faintly bad odor.
We also found Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers, which are striped green and maroon. They’re among my favorite spring blooms, but I have to remember not to touch them because they produce a chemical that can irritate the skin.
They’re long-lived perennials, popping up in the same spot for 20-plus years. Therefore, if you find a patch, you can return each spring to enjoy them.
Now, just a few days later, the landscape has already changed so much. On a recent woods walk near my house, I noticed that the starflowers are in bloom, as well as painted trilliums. Ferns have mostly unfurled, and tiny mushrooms have popped up from the mossy forest floor.
While hiking, noticing these smaller features of the environment requires slowing down and maybe even taking a break to sit on the ground. (Though, you’ll want to check for ticks after that.) It’s a great excuse to catch your breath. Tired of trudging uphill? Go check out that cool mushroom.