Beginnings, and eight-legged sand

On Tuesday, the sun came out from behind the clouds! And it even stayed out for hours! We went to the beach, of course.

The tide at Boundary Bay was high, and still coming in. We walked at the edge for a bit, then crossed the log barrier and meandered over the dunes. The predominant colours are still beige and grey, but a few green sprouts were poking above the sand, especially where the surface is warmed by a layer of log remnants and dead grasses. We got down on our knees to get a closer look.

Carex macrocephala, Large-headed sedge, already a few inches high.

I think this may be a chickweed.

Claytonia exigua, aka Pale Montia, or Spring Beauty. It doesn't get much bigger, and will be producing pinkish flower stalks soon. I'm not sure of the seedlings on the right.

Still in the cotyledon stage; two thick leaflets. They could  be almost anything,.

Another unidentified seedling.

I've marked the spot, and we'll be back often. I want to see what these turn into.

I was holding the camera an inch above the ground*, focusing on the Pale Montia, when the sand near my little finger started to run. Out of the shadow of my hand, it turned into an orange and black spider.

Arctosa perita, one of the Wolf spiders.

On the mixed peach, white and grey sand, she blended in perfectly. I could see her with the naked eye, but not through the lens of the camera. Nor could the camera distinguish her enough to focus, so I took a good dozen photos, hoping for the best.

I found one like this last year around this time, a ways farther up the shore. It was about twice the size of this one, 1/4 inch fangs to spinnerets.

*How to get sand on your lens. Even inside your lens, although I don't know how it gets in. It does.