Snail enthusiasts join in on first ever SnailBlitz

Phil Liff-Grieff, left, and Cedric Lee help find and identify snails with citizen scientists. Scientists anticipate that El Niño rains will bring more snails and slugs out of hiding over the next few months.

Young citizen scientists Ava Joanis, 5, right, and Logan Joanis, 8, view a snail held by Madeline Falacci during the SnailBlitz organized by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.

Ava Joanis holds a snail she found on a leaf.

A snail crawls along a log.

Snail meets snail  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Science blogger and illustrator Katie McKissick views two snails together during the SnailBlitz.

Katie McKissick shows the snails she found to Mariela Lee, left, Mateo Lee, 1 year, Alejandro Lee, 6, and Chris Lee.

Carmen Bermejo, 8, left, Ava Joanis, center, and Logan Joanis, were among roughly two dozen citizen scientists turning over logs and poking into leaves on a quest to count snails.

Phil Liff-Grieff studies a snail. “This is really exciting,” he said. “We can see different sizes and not too many empty shells. That means they’re thriving.”

Madeline Falacci of Pasadena holds a tiny snail with a spiral shell.

Jonah Netburn-Ducker, 7, gets a close-up view of a snail as part of a project organized by the Natural History Museum to catalog the creatures at Eaton Canyon in Altadena.