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.
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| Carex macrocephala, Large-headed sedge, already a few inches high. |
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| I think this may be a chickweed. |
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| 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. |
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| Still in the cotyledon stage; two thick leaflets. They could be almost anything,. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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