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Photo 23 May 2012.
Still not a very common sight in Orkney, land snails (I think this is a Common Garden Snail) must rarely feel a need to aestivate, that is, go into a dormant state when conditions get too warm and dry. This one was on the wall of a Stromness house 22 - 23 May and may well be there yet, since any change in the weather in the past 48 hrs has been if anything towards warmer and dryer. I find it hard to believe it couldn't have found a cooler, shadier, damper nook somewhere, in which to carry on its daily life as normal.
Any escargologists, gastropodiatrists, or whatever snail experts are called, out there to explain? Maybe it climbed the 'marble-dashed' wall seeking calcium for shell-growth and was caught short when the sun came out?
[Not very common! Yer joking! On a damp summer's night the crunch of shells as you walk down our garden path is... disgusting. - Steven]
Picture added on 30 May 2012 at 21:46
I agree wae Steven. Our garden is full of the huge things.
Anonymous comment added on 01 June 2012
And mine!!!
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Added by Hazel on 24 June 2012
Stromness
[I can assure you that it's not just my garden Ian, the pavements are hoaching with the blighters around here as well. In the evenings I'm sometimes sitting at the computer and get distracted by a squeaking noise, that is a snail slurping its way across the glass of the window in front of me. - Steven]