What’s going on out on the land?

Highlights of Tracking in the Boyne Valley
tracking, tracking apprenticeship, winter, mammals, food, dead stuff byron murray tracking, tracking apprenticeship, winter, mammals, food, dead stuff byron murray

Highlights of Tracking in the Boyne Valley

I have been thinking a lot this Winter about how amazing it is that all of the various species we track can survive such apparent hardships of freezing temperatures, labourious snow depths, and drastically reduced vegetal forage. It’s like turning off the heat in your house, wading through 60 - 90 odd cm (2 - 3 ft) carpet pile, while constantly engaging all your senses to find the perpetually vigilant and furtive refrigerator. Tough times indeed.

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Differentiating between Cepaea nemoralis and Cepaea hortensis
snails, gastropods, invertebrates byron murray snails, gastropods, invertebrates byron murray

Differentiating between Cepaea nemoralis and Cepaea hortensis

Snails have captured my attention lately and I am getting more and more curious as time goes on.
It isn’t like my curiosity has suddenly been triggered, but rather, it has grown over the past year or so. This curiosity and interest tends to fall back to one or two specific species which I encounter most often. They are the common species in my area of Southern Ontario in the Cepaea genus, Cepaea hortensis and Cepaea nemoralis. But how do you tell them apart?
There is one way to know, but it can be a bit tricky.

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