Slow search

It pays to slow down.

Seen while sitting in the rain, poking through the duff:

Unidentified tiny mushrooms. Douglas-fir cone shows the size.

Moss and tiny wolf spider. Pardosa sp., probably.

Or inspecting decaying stumps:

Lichen "garden". Cladonia sp. and some moss. And what looks like Freckle Pelt lichen, Peltigera sp.

They look like green nails. More Cladonia sp. lichens.

Or, standing now, with my nose to tree trunks:

A Forked Tube lichen, Hypogymnia sp. Also called Bone lichen.

A coral lichen, probably Tuckerman's Coral lichen, Sphaerophorus tuckermanii.

There's more! I'll post the photos over the next few days. Oh, and Wednesday will be the first day of this year's Arachtober, and have I got a find to start off with! Something I'd never seen before, found in that duff.

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Despacito, despacito; vale la pena "perder el tiempo".

Esto lo vi, sentada en la lluvia, revolviendo la hojarasca:

1. Honguitos. No los pude identificar. Están enfrente de un cono de abeto de Douglas, que da una idea de su tamaño.
2. Una araña correlona en el musgo. Parece ser una araña "lobo", una de las especies del género Pardosa.
3. Y examinando tocones podridos: un "jardín" de líquenes, principalmente Cladonia sp., con un poco de Peltigera sp. Y musgos.
4. Estos líquenes Cladonia sp. parecen clavos verdes.
5. O de pie con la nariz casi tocando la corteza de los árboles: Aquí un liquen "Tubo Bifurcado", Hypogymnia sp. También se pueden llamar líquenes "Hueso".
6. Y un liquen coralino, probablemente el liquen de Tuckerman, Sphaerophorus tuckermanii.

¡Hay más! Subiré las fotos en los próximos dias. Y el miércoles empieza el mes de Arachtober, y ¡tengo algo insólito para empezar la serie! Algo que nunca había visto antes, ni nada parecido; y lo encontré entre esa hojarasca.

Four and a half spiders

I'm finding spiders every day, now, after a strangely spider-free summer. They're here at home, out in the garden, and yesterday, hiking down to Elk Falls, I passed three lurking in the shadows and a long web stretched across the trail. A welcome sight.

These are some I found at home. Four and a half spiders.

One. She's a Common Crab spider, Xysticus cristatus.

Same spider. I was following her all around the kitchen.

And here she is again, with the half spider. A molt of one of the little ones that hide behind the tiles.

Two. A small False Black Widow, Steatoda grossa. That white ghost is just a bump in the paint.

And a two-fer, spiders three and four. Cellar spider, eating a Woodlouse spider twice her size. She drained the abdomen and dropped the rest on the floor for the staff (me) to clean up .

And with a whole month to go before Arachtober, I might have my quota of spider pics on time. 

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Ahora estoy encontrando arañas todos los dias, esto después de un verano curiosamente sin arañas.  Las veo en casa, en el jardín, y ayer, bajando el sendero hacia las cataratas, vi tres, y además una telaraña larguísima que se extendía de un lado del camino al otro. ¡Otra araña con grandes ambiciones!

Estas cuatro y media arañas las encontré en casa;

1. Una araña cangrejo, Xysticus cristatus.
2. La misma; la estaba siguiendo mientras exploraba mi cocina.
3. Y otra vez, ahora con la media araña: una muda de una de las arañas miniaturas que vive atrás de los azulejos.
4. Esta es la que llaman la viuda negra falsa. (Totalmente inofensiva.) Steatoda grossa. El fantasma blanco es una protuberancia en la pintura de la pared.
5. Y dos por el precio de una. Una araña fólcida, Pholcus phalangioides, comiéndose una araña Dysdera crocata el doble de su tamaño. No la pudo terminar; se chupó el interior del abdomen, y dejó caer los desechos al suelo. Cuenta con servicio de limpieza gratis, (yo) al fin.

Y me queda todo un mes antes de Arachtober; parece que tendré mi cuota de fotos de araña completa con tiempo.

A half-dozen spiders

It seems strange. I'm always on the lookout for spiders, especially because I need to collect some 50 or so spider photos for Arachtober every year. But this year has been unusually spider-free. Checking back, I have 4 photos of spiders for the entire first half of this year. Around home, there are always a few cellar spiders (I carefully dust and vacuum around them), but this year, they've all been tiny; none have grown up to carry eggs, as far as I have seen. And there are a couple of pin-prick spiders (defined as smaller than a pinhead) patrolling the area around my bedside lamp.  And the little jumper that turned up by my desk two weeks ago, and a couple of elusive jumpers in my garden; that's about it.

Where have all the spiders gone?

And then, all at once, they're turning up at my door; even 3 the same morning. Strange. 

Parasteatoda sp., with sowbug.

California Flattened jumping spider,  Platycriptus californicus.

Tiny, unidentified, with her cast-off molt.

Another Parasteatoda sp., with her typically messy web.

She's hung her web across my window. And caught a small crane fly.

Woodlouse spider, Dysdera crocata, just inside my door.

And just now, the spider at my window, caught herself a tiny fly.

Two nights ago, I was parked at a gas station, when a good-sized spider dropped down beside me, hanging from the roof overhead. She almost reached the ground, then quickly climbed her line back up to the roof. Making a web to catch gas station customers? I got away safely, anyhow.

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Me parece algo extraño. Siempre ando buscando arañas, especialmente porque tengo que juntar unas 50 fotos de arañas para participar en Arachtober cada año. Pero este año apenas he visto unas pocas. En la primera mitad del año, apenas he sacado 4 fotos de arañas. Por mi casa, siempre hay algunas arañas fólcidas, (y con mucho cuidado, sacudo y paso la aspiradora sin tocarlas) pero este año, todas han sido miniaturas; ninguna, por lo que he visto, ha llegado a poner huevos. Y hay dos o tres arañitas del tamaño de la punta de un alfiler cerca de mi lámpara de noche. Y hace dos semanas, hubo una araña saltarina al lado de mi escritorio, y vi dos en el jardín. Y eso es todo.

¿A dónde se han ido todas las arañas?

Y  luego, de repente, allí están en mi puerta; hasta 3 en un mismo dia. 

1. Una araña Parasteatoda sp., con una cochinilla.
2. Una araña saltarina, Platycriptus californicus.
3. Una arañita miniatura, con su vieja muda desechada.
4. Otra Parasteatoda sp., con su telaraña desordenada.
5. Esta araña ha construido su telaraña en mi ventana; aquí está comiendo una típula.
6. Dysdera crocata. Estas arañas también comen cochinillas.
7. Y la misma araña de mi ventana, hace unos minutos. Acaba de capturar una mosca pequeña.

Hace dos noches, estaba estacionada en una gasolinera cuando una araña muy grande bajó colgando desde el techo sobre las bombas.  Llegó casi al suelo, luego volvió a trepar rapidamente sobre su seda hasta el techo. ¿Estaría preparando una telaraña para capturar algún cliente de la gasolinera? Yo, por suerte, escapé con la vida.

Arachtober 2024!

So it's October already. Or I should say, Arachtober; the month when a bunch of spider lovers, 311 of us this year,  post our spider photos to the Flickr Arachtober group pool. One a day, these first couple of weeks, then 2, then 3 towards the end, going out in a blaze of glory at the end of the month. Some wonderful photos, beautiful, fascinating, illuminating; go see!

I posted the first of these two to the pool yesterday; the second is today's entry. A tiny, tiny spider, a mere speck, on the leaves of an African violet catching the early morning sunlight.

Making her way through a "meadow" of belly-deep violet leaf hairs.

Sun-bathing.

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Y no sé donde se fue el año, pero ya estamos en octubre. O mejor dicho, en Arachtober; el mes en que un grupo de aficionados a las arañas y otros arácnidos, que ahora cuenta con 311 miembros, subimos nuestras recientes fotos de arañas a la página en Flickr, Arachtober. Subiremos una foto diaria durante las dos primeras semanas del mes, luego 2 diarias, terminando al fin del mes con 3 diarias. Las fotos son asombrosas, bellas, educativas;  ¡hay que verlas!

La primera de estas fotos fue mi entrada ayer; la segunda la subiré al grupo en unos minutos. Muestran una arañita muy pequeñita, tomando el sol de la mañana en las hojas de mi violeta africana, Saintpaulia sp..

Deciding on a name

 It's been a long, hot, dry summer here in the rainforest. But it rained last night, briefly and scantly. But it was rain! And today, the skies are our normal grey, the humidity is 85%, and it's 13°C. Feels like fall, finally!

I'm still searching for spiders for Arachtober. Meanwhile, here's Lake Nameless.

Green water, with hidden heron.

This is from last April, while the salmon berries were just putting out their first leaves. The lake is beside the route to Brown's Bay, one of two lakes too small to earn names. This one, from Google maps, has a sort of dolphin shape; should I rename it Dolphin Lake?

Google maps image.

I was trying to get close enough for a photo of a heron, but I took one step into that salmonberry thicket, and immediately sunk up to my ankles in sticky mud. I managed to escape without losing a shoe; I was lucky. Maybe I should name it Booby Trap Lake, instead.

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Ha sido un verano largo, caluroso, y seco aquí en los bosques pluviales de la isla. Pero, por fin, llovió anoche. Unos momentos de lluvia escasa, pero sí que fue lluvia. Y hoy el cielo es del color normal: gris. La humedad está a 85 porciento, y la temperatura es 13°. Empieza a tener señales de otoño. ¡Ya era hora!

Sigo buscando arañas para el mes de Arachtober.  Por mientras, aquí está una foto de un laguito sin nombre. Esto es en el mes de abril pasado, cuando las primeras hojas de "salmonberry" arbustos apenas brotaban. El lago está situado al lado del camino a Brown's Bay, uno de dos laguitos tan pequeños que no han recibido nombre. Este, mirado en Google Maps, parece un delfín; creo que le llamaré Lago Delfín.

O tal vez no. Trataba de llegar a la orilla para sacar una foto de una garza, pero al dar un solo paso bajo esos arbustos, me hundí hasta los tobillos en lodo pegajoso. Logré escapar sin perder un zapato; tuve suerte. Tal vez sería mejor llamar el lago "Trampa Cazabobos"

Critter assortment

 Arachtober starts in a couple of weeks. That's when a bunch of us crazies post our spider photos on Flickr, one a day to start, ending up with five on Hallowe'en. So I've been poking around here and there, at home and away, night and day, looking for spiders to photograph.

Got a good batch. And also a few other critters; here are some of them.

Night shot above my front door. Unidentified moth, photo stack 4 photos.

UPDATE: it's an Alfalfa looper moth, Autographa californica. I used Google image search and it came up with it right away! Good to remember.

Water strider, probably Limnoporus notabilis. Roberts Lake.

A smaller unidentified moth by my door.

Hopper, above Roberts Lake. These made clicking sounds when they flew away.

Leftover spider lunch. Golden Jewel Beetle, Buprestis aurulenta.

And a few intertidal critters. Orange and white dogwinkle, barnacles, and limpets.

Yes, there are spiders just above the intertidal zone, but they're all really fast runners.

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En unos cuantos dias empieza el mes de Arachtober, cuando un grupo de aficionados de los arácnidos subimos fotos de arañas a Flickr, uno por dia, aumentando hasta llegar a cinco el Dia de los Muertos. Y he estando buscando arañas en todas partes, noche y dia, para sacarles sus fotos.

Pues también me he cruzado con otros bichos. Aquí hay algunos de ellos.

Fotos:

1. Una paloma, o mariposa nocturna. Esta la encontré de noche, arriba de mi puerta de entrada. Sin identificación. ACTUALIZANDO: es un Autographa californica. Subí la foto a Google Imagenes y me dió la respuesta instantáneamente.
2. Un Patinador de agua, probablemente Limnoporus notabilis. En el lago Roberts.
3. Otra palomita en mi puerta.
4. Un saltamontes, en el cerro cerca del lago Roberts. Estos hacían un "clic" cuando volaban.
5. Escarabajo Buprestis aurulenta, la joya de oro. Mala suerte; le agarró una araña.
6. Y unos bichos intramareales. Un caracol marino, Nucella spp., con bálanos y lapas. Si hubo arañas por el rumbo, pero corren muy rápido.

Arachtober First

Arachtober already! Where has the time gone?

And here's my first spider for the month:

See her?

She's waiting in her tunnel in the hardhack beside the beaver pond, hidden as much by raindrops as by hardhack leaves.

Web with raindrops.

Dressed in brown and gold

Hanging spiders. #Arachtober 24

Dinner with folding wings

I got a smidgen too close, and she turned on her side and ran away, carrying her dinner in her pedipalps.

Little chubby, hanging by two threads.

Leggy

Two spiders for #Arachtober 23, slightly mis-named:

Cellar spider, not in a cellar.

And a cross spider, never in a cross mood.

Arachtober 15

We're halfway through the month of Arachtober. Todays entries (two per day for the rest of the month) are photos of one who lived for a week in my hallway.

Araneus diadematus male. With spiky legs.

Sleeping "hidden" in a gap behind a shelf.

And now he's gone, probably to sleep in a warm crack for the winter.

#Arachtober

Life is tough.

Chia, in a mournful mood.

"This bed is too small! Why don't you fix it?"

She has slept in this basket ever since she was a kitten. She has a new, larger basket, with a wool cushion and a catnip toy, and she does consent to curl up there at times. But this little one is her old favourite; wherever I move it, there she goes to sleep. Even if she hangs over the edges all around.

Maybe if I put the little basket inside the large one?

Arachtober 10: Today's entry is a spider meal, appropriate for the Canadian Thanksgiving season.

Ready to eat

#Arachtober

Arachtober 9: the reader

I've been following this little jumper around with the camera for days. When I took this, he was visiting my bedside table; now he's on my dresser.

He's tipped back, gluing a tracking webline to the book.

Jumpers are not cobweb builders, but they do travel at the end of a silk line, which enables them to drop and dangle off a "cliff" or the edge of my bedside table, in this case. They also make themselves safe spaces, silk shelters under leaves or the loose bark of a tree. One (not the bookworm) has build himself a hammock in the corner of my ceiling today and appears to be resting there.

#Arachtober

Arachtober 8

Today's spider for Arachtober is the greedy fruit fly chef I wrote about a month ago.

6 fruit flies in one meatball.

#Arachtober

Last-minute heron

I had done the circuit of Tyee Spit, twice, looking at weeds and mushrooms and squinting at distant cormorants and mallards, hoping for swans and herons, but there were none, near or far. And now I was cold and hungry. I was in the car, with the motor running. I lifted the visor - there was no sun to worry about any more - and there was a heron right in front of me.

Great blue heron, and 7 golden-crowned sparrows.

I assume those are golden-crowns, because I kept seeing them in among the weeds.

Golden-crowned sparrow, standing still for half a second. The plants are wild rose, Oregon grape, Himalayan blackberry, and a few grasses.

Today's Arachtober spider is a big cross spider patrolling the carport.

Spike

#Arachtober

Light along the shore

It's been a while since I've been to Tyee Spit, mostly because there's no shade, and this summer has been hot. But suddenly, it's wet and cold; time to go looking for mushrooms. Tyee Spit is a good place for them.

And for watching the light over the water. I walked the shore a couple of hours before sundown, facing the dying light.

Stumps along the shore

Distant loon. The shore plants are broom (grrrr!), Oregon grape, and blackberry.

Just grass

More shore "weeds"

Turning to face away from the light. The tail end of the Spit from a new viewing platform. Grey weather, but it's not raining, for now.

Today's spider for Arachtober is a pensive jumper.

Green fangs!

#Arachtober

Green and yellow spider

Another tiny spider. This one was on the wall over my kitchen sink. I saw him this afternoon as I was dropping off my coffee cup on the way out the door, and stopped to take a few fast photos. Good thing; when I came home, he was gone.

He's somewhere around 1/4 cm long. I postponed taking a measurement until I came home. Too late!.

#Arachtober