Happy Snail Trails

Along the shores of the Bay of Fundy, the molluscs are so common below high tide mark that it is often hard to avoid stepping on them. Everywhere you go are periwinkles, mussels, and whelks.

On the average sunny day, you may not realize that molluscs are probably almost as abundant in places far above the shoreline. Walk under the trees on a misty morning, though, and you will see that the woods are full of snails. These gastropods, and their slug cousins, are wonderfully adapted to the humid Acadian Coastal Forest.

These photos are from a stroll between Red Point and The Anchorage, along the seaward side of Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick.

“Old man’s beard” lichen festoons the trees

At the top of the beach ridge, hogweeds loom through the mist like ghosts