Unseasonably Warm Weather

66 degrees in January? Yes, please! And I'm not the only one who's been enjoying the nice weather. The slugs had to go under the back porch during the last week or so to escape the harsh cold, but now they're coming back out again into their old haunts. I even observed 2 of them yesterday feeding in the daytime, which is rare. Then last night, after a rainy, muddy day, I counted no fewer than 14 baby slugs on the lattice and the porch! The adults are still laying eggs and our population of Lehmannia valentiana is continuing to grow, though some have and will eventually die off, as is the way of things. If I could monitor the population growth I would, but I can't think of any way to tag the slugs like you could do with a bird or a furry quadruped. So I'm not sure if the population will stabilize through natural deaths, injuries, and parasitism, not to mention predators, or will steadily increase over time. I mean, how could it not do the latter, considering the number of eggs, unless the hatchlings simply replace almost the same number of deceased adults every year. It would be interesting to know how many slugs lived in our yard, say, 5 years ago, compared to now.

So, anyway, I'm trying to take advantage of the warm weather while it lasts. It's looking like rain again today. As if we haven't had enough already! Poor worms. They've had an awful time of it with the saturation of the soil. I saw a fat gray night crawler inching across the concrete last night, and after the last rainstorm there were many worm-casualties strewn across the driveway: drowned. I showed you some photos of the red wigglers climbing up the lattice and the walls. At least the birds will have some easy meals. The bluebirds especially have been active recently, feeding and fighting each other. But the more the other songbirds feast on sunflower seeds, the more my slugs will have to eat too in the form of shells, so everybody's happy. Except the worms, that is. They're hardly ever on the winning side.