Thanks Mikey, I knew when I typed it it was wrong!
Not my photo.. just a reminder/info about this interesting crittur.. 
weâve seen them in our area a few times over the years 
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We have a few here but so elusive!
Iâm envious of all your owl sightings. We hear a lot of chouettes hulotte (tawny owls) in our woods but have never seen one despite MANY hours out there at all hours, even slug hunting by headlamp.
Oh youâve made me chuckle 
At one time I used to call my evening outings âslug and snail patrolâ as there were so many of these little darlings. I used to chuck most of the snails into my neighbourâs garden
Somebody got paid a lot of money to prove that that doesnât work, snails at least are like homing pigeons, they make their way home, eventually.
theyâve a very long trek to make it back home to my garden and wouldnât get past the patrols of hedgehogs and thrushes (and any other predators)
Aigrette garzette (Great egret)?
Take a look at the photos in this link. It shows the different birds (Egrets/. You might recognise the one you saw, possibly grande-egret (heron)
Carried around on their backs
Love it, and that is exactly what I read some time ago. Somebody got a substantial grant from a university to study this very creature. Got an idea it was simply putting a blob of fingernail paint on each shell before chucking it over the fence.
I do notice several empty snail shells on my terrace throughout most of the year.. discarded after some wild critter has enjoyed a snack (with or without garlic )
and, being a gentle soul, if I notice a couple of snails copulating, I leave 'em alone.
I avert my gaze, it is only polite. 
But, as a determined naturalist and non-gardener, I do not find slugs and snails a pest. More a fellow wild creature to be admired and, if they can run riot in my garden while it continues to grow at its own rapid pace, they obviously arenât doing much damage. 