Day 371

I thought they were worms at first.

Just strange looking worms writhing around a bird's corpse as they do.

Living in the countryside you see sights like that fairly often.

Everything will die and breakdown eventually.

See, I get interested in the process of decomposing.

It truly is fascinating to see in person, smell aside of course.

Something was off about this scene though.

They were awfully flat for worms, is what I began to notice.

They didn't quite move like worms either.

Worms writhe anyway they can - articulated all over you see, setae they're called.

Though it was hard to tell through the mud and rotting bird they didn't move right.

I'll admit I had a rummage through the corpse to get a closer look.

They were rounder at one end and jagged at the other, much larger than I thought.

Felt rougher than worms too, covered in little lumps.

Took me a while to realise they were tongues.
I felt the dirt beneath me shift slowly as they rose.