It's gumweed (
Grindelia stricta) season again. The dunes and the meadow at Oyster Bay are bright with all their yellow blooms.
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| And more, about to burst into flower. |
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| The white stuff is glue. Very sticky. It doesn't hold back the petals when they flare out, though. The little white critters are whiteflies. |
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| Half opened. With a blue-black spider. |
I hadn't seen the spider until I looked at the photos. In the field, I'm too busy trying to focus on a petal swaying in the wind to see all the details.
I've never seen a spider this black here before. The legs are pale, and there's a brown patch on the cephalothorax. I can't identify the spider, so I'll send it in to BugGuide. They're good; they even identified my newborn spiderlings!
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| Here's the spider, cropped out of the photo above. |
