Life with a 3-year-old seems to move at a snail’s pace. It takes forever and a day to get out the door, especially in winter, and especially when he insists on doing things himself. Sometimes fostering his spirit of independence can bring a grown man to tears. But eventually, he will grow up. So I had better enjoy his last few weeks at age 3.

As he explores the world around him, stopping to look at everything and ask a barrage of non-stop questions, the snail’s pace can be enjoyable if you can make the time for his needs. Perhaps his mind is looking to ensure that the answers are the same each time he asks the same question several times each day for several days.

But eventually, he starts to ask new questions as they learn to remember the answers to the old ones. He starts to gain confidence in his new knowledge and repeats what he has learned. At this moment in time, Jameson brings up phantom midge larva in everyday conversation. I must be doing something right.

In Week 21 of 2010, snails of various kinds were observed both on land and in the waters of the pond. As an outdoor environmental educator with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, a teaching certification in general science, and a master’s degree in curriculum and technology, my training as a naturalist are amateurish at best. I move at a snail’s pace when identifying the exact species of animal I observe.

Although I do my best to share correct identifications with my students like you, the reader, I make mistakes due to my limited knowledge. It is the occasional mistake I make that makes me want to hide in my shell. But I persevere and take the long-term approach to my work.

As I pause between thoughts, I do take a moment to attempt identification, using the “Key to Families and Genera of Freshwater Gastropoda of the United States,” as found in the book, Pennak’s Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States. But alas, stuck I am on the first phrase of the first sentence of the key, “Without an operculum."

An unfamiliar word is operculum. Strange words don’t scare me. So I look it up and discover that an operculum is a flap or lid to the opening of a snail shell. It never occurred to me that some snails have these. At the pond or even in the woods, I never thought to pick up a snail and poke it a bit just to see what would happen.

I take a go at it anyway and guess that the spiral aquatic snails have no operculum. I’ll check next week just to be sure. Since the shell obviously has a spire (spiral shaped, duh) and a raised on at that, I move on.

Is the aperture (the hole where the snail’s head sticks out) on the right side or left side of the shell? I didn’t look at its bottom. Looking at the picture I took, I mentally flip the snail and determine that its aperture is on the right.

With this, we now have a family - Lymnaeidae, a group of air-breathing, freshwater snails. However, many Limnaeidae snails are confined to water with a pH level greater than 7.0. I have not yet tested the waters of Black Pond. I’ve always heard (and read) that oak leaves contain tannins, which reduce the pH of pond water. Is Black Pond acidic, neutral or basic?

Let’s continue on with the taxonomic key. Perhaps our snail is one of those Lymnaeidae that live in water with a pH below 7.0.

In length, the aperture is less than or equal to the length of the spire and is not narrow or needle-like. The shell does not appear to be particularly thin nor is it longer than 30mm. The shell does appear to have some microsculpture and is longer than 15mm. So we get a genus of Stagnicola of which there are more than 20 species in northern North America.

Based on the blurry image of the microsculpture on the spire and its common distribution, I’m going to take the safe guess and say that our snail friend is a Stagnicola elodes. On the other hand, the key I’m using consists of black and white, pen and ink drawings. A few hours later, one small step for me, but time to hide and reflect for a while.

The next aquatic snail has been seen in the pond throughout the month of May. Sparing the dichotomous key details, my best guess is that this snail is of the family Planorbidae and of the genus Planorbula or possibly Gyraulus. I’ll have to see if I can get a more focused picture of this one from both the top and the side.

Here is an online key similar to the one I’m using, the EGSR Aquatic Snail Identification Key at the Edwin S. George Reserve, UM’s 1500 acre reseach site near Pinckney.

At this moment in time, I’m not sure I can handle figuring out what this terrestrial snail is. But it sure is fun to watch.

At the pond, the caddisfly larvae no longer appear. They must have pupated and become adults. A few predaceous diving beetle larvae are still feasting on daphnia and ostracods. Clam shrimp and fingernail clams are still present. Gray tree frogs were in full chorus. Spring peepers were approaching the end of their mating season. Green frogs were starting to pick up the pace. Black raspberries were flowering, mayapples were not, and wild geraniums were nearing the end of their season.

During our visit to Black Pond on May 27, we heard an unusual repetitive knocking sound coming from the edge of the pond on the north and west sides. Could it have been a new species of frog calling? My first thought was that it was a carpenter frog, which has makes a similar sound. But no, carpenter frogs are not found in Michigan, unless transported by humans for whatever reason. The sound was also similar to the Blanchard’s cricket frog, which has been observed in Washtenaw County, not far from Ann Arbor. Unless a duck or human transported it, this species would not appear in Black Pond. Strike two. I called upon my resources from the Ann Arbor Natural Areas Preservation Amphibian Surveys and the Ann Arbor Public Schools Environmental Education naturalists. We ruled out woodpeckers since the sound did not come from the trees. It turns out that the most likely culprit were chipmunks with their fast-paced “ground predator alarm call.” Perhaps there was a snake or other unseen mammal nearby since the call started well before we reached the pond and lasted throughout our visit of an hour.

We’re still working on the identification of the mysterious, green, 2-3mm long, oval-shaped organisms, which move and change shape. I’ve contacted several teams of scientists and naturalists to assist. I’ve created videos of the under the microscope and am attempting to take a focused picture of them. We’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities and will share them next week.

You can preview the videos from under the microscope of the mysterious green organism by visiting the YouTube channel of Stefan Szumko, AKA slugwhisperer at http://www.youtube.com/user/slugwhisperer.

Stefan Szumko is a middle school science teacher by trade, an outdoor environmental educator by calling, and a homedaddy by choice. He can be reached at slugwhisperer@gmail.com.