I very rarely see earthworms these days. Back in SoCal it was pretty much a certainty that after (or during) a rain you'd encounter a worm or five on the sidewalk, but for some reason here in Korea worms are a rarity, at least in the city, and when you do come across them they must be different species because some of them are huge compared to the ones in the U.S. Today we had some light rain in the morning, and I thought that was it, but then in the afternoon it began to rain again, and soon it turned into a heavy downpour, complete with thunder and lightning worthy of the summer monsoons. Well, I happen to love rain -- the heavier the better -- so I broke out my underused raincoat, put on the wide-brimmed safari hat and the trusty old wellingtons and set out. And on the way out I came upon a worm crawling down the sidewalk. It was one of the bigger ones and I was actually a little scared to pick it up with my fingers -- it was almost like a tiny snake, plus slimy and slippery -- so I used a twig to pick it up and move it to the verge. The soil was wet and softened from the rain so I think it would have made it home O.K.
Then on the way back I encountered another worm on the sidewalk -- a smaller one this time -- and when I picked it up it didn't put up any resistance so it must have been exhausted. I put it down on the soil and covered it up with some plant debris. I hope it was able to dig its way back in.
Number of worms rescued: 75
No comments:
Post a Comment