Escape

I've been shut in (and around) the house for a couple of weeks, for various reasons, none problematic, but they've kept me prowling through the garden and chasing moths around the house. And today I was set free and I let the highway pull me north. Explored an unmarked logging road, and a second with confusing names, continued on to Lake Hormak and hiked through the bush. Supper in Sayward Junction, and home in time to water the gardens and wash the logging road off the car while there was still sunlight. (Sunset today was at 9:30.) It feels good!

And I have tons of photos to sort. Everything is bursting out now; the view along the road is green, green, green. And there are flowers; foxgloves and goat's beard and thimbleberries and lupins. Wild roses, cow parsnips, elderberries (some flowers and I saw one already loaded with red berries) and, of course, the invasive yellow broom. Along the trail I saw salal flowers, twinflowers, hardhack, trailing blackberry, miner's lettuce; at every turn there are more. And they're loaded with busy bugs.

I found these tiny roses along the logging road near Eve River.

Baldhip rose, Rosa gymnocarpa. The largest was about 2 cm. across. First Nations people made a tea from the young leaves and twigs to use as an eyewash for sore eyes.

This one has a visitor. A syrphid fly, I think.

And because I'm doing roses, here's one of mine, from this week. I think (I'm not sure) that there's a crab spider camouflaged in the centre. In another photo there was the roundness of her belly; here, I think I see a leg.

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He estado encerrada en mi casa y jardín por unos quince dias. Varias razones, sin problemas, pero suficientes para no permitirme ni salir del pueblo. Y hoy, por fin, estoy libre. Y la carretera me agarró y me llevó hacia el norte. Seguí un camino de forasteros sin nombre, otro con varios nombres, luego fui al lago Hormak y caminé en el bosque. Cené en Sayward Junction, y llegué a casa con tiempo para regar los jardines y lavar el coche, que había traído parte de los caminos de forasteros a casa, mientras todavía había luz. (La puesta del sol hoy fue a las 9:30.) ¡Se siente maravilloso!

Y ahora tengo toneladas de fotos para revisar. Todo está en pleno crecimiento ahora; las vistas por la carretera son verdes, verdes, verdes. Y hay flores:And I have tons of photos to sort. Everything is bursting out now; the view along the road is green, green, green. And there are flowers; digitalis y "bara de cabras", thimbleberries y lupinos. Rosas silvestres, pastinaca de vaca, elderberry (algunas flores pero vi un arbusto ya con sus bayas rojas), y, claro, la invasiva retama negra con sus flores amarillas. En el bosque vi flores de salal, flores gemelas, Spiraea douglasii, la mora nativa, lechuga del minero; en cada vuelta hay más. Y están cubiertas de insectos polinizadores.

Encontré estas rosas pequeñitas en el camino de foraseteros cerca del rio Eva.

    1. Rosa gymnocarpa. La más grande medía menos de 2 cm. Los indígenas hacían un thé con las hojas y ramitas y con el bañaban los ojos irritados.

    2. Este tiene su polinizador. Una mosca sírfida, creo.

    3. Y ya que estoy subiendo rosas, aquí hay una de mi jardín. Creo, pero no estoy segura, que hay una araña cangrejo escondida en el centro, bien camuflada. En otra foto, vi lo redondo de su abdomen; aquí creo poder ver el ángulo de una pata.

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.

Pink, fresh, and spider-free

During the month of Arachtober,  I kept looking at flowers, searching for crab spiders. They hide there, almost invisibly, waiting for a pollinating insect to drop in and become lunch. I didn't find any. It has not been a spidery year around here.

So here are four spider-free flowers.

A fly visits a dahlia, safely.

The last rose of fall on my rosebush.

Another dahlia, sans spider, sans prey.

Cosmos, a month ago. They are still trying to bloom today, in spite of rain and gusting wind.

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Durante todo el mes de "Arachtober", buscaba entre las flores, queriendo hallar una araña cangrejo, que se esconden allí, casi invisibles, esperando a que lleguen los insectos polinadores, que pronto se volverán la cena de la araña. No encontré ni una. Pocas arañas han habido este año por el rumbo.

Aquí hay cuatro flores sin arañas.

1. Una dalia con una mosca suertuda.
2. La última rosa de este otoño en mi jardín.
3. Otra dalia, sin moscas, sin arañas.
4. Cosmos, hace un mes. Hoy, a pesar de lluvias y vientos fuertes, siguen tratando de florecer. 

Beware!

The pearly everlastings were barely open and so sparkling white, so pearly. I chose two and took a few photos, then saw the brown beetle. More photos, mostly blurry. Not till I got home did I see the yellow menace on the extra stalk.

Pearly everlastings. The brown beetle, all unaware of his danger, is on the one on the right.

And here's the menace. A yellow crab spider, arms akimbo. "The better to hug you, my dear."

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Vi unas flores nuevecitas de Anaphalis margaritacea, la llamada "eterna perlada", y tan blancas eran, brillantes como perlas. Escogí dos y les saqué unas fotos. Y luego vi el escarabajo color café, y saqué más fotos, más o menos mal enfocadas, entre el viento y my postura algo torcida. Y no vi por nada la amenaza amarilla en el tercer tallo hasta que llegué a casa.

Fotos:

1. La foto con tres plantas. El escarabajo, explorando las flores sin saber el peligro que corre, está en la planta a la derecha.
2. Y aquí la amenazadora. Una araña cangrejo amarilla con los brazos abiertos, como para recibir a su visitante con un abrazo cariñoso.

Ambush

I found a pretty hover fly on my roses. I was surprised that he so patiently waited to have his photo taken. Then I looked at the photo blown up on my screen.

Syrphid (hover) fly, not hovering.

Do you see it? Look closely; those white feet aren't his. They belong to the crab spider who was hiding under the petals, and now is under the fly, ready for lunch.

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Encontré una mosca sírfida en una de mis rosas. Me sorprendió que fue tan paciente, permitiéndome sacarle varias fotos. Más tarde, mirando las fotos en mi pantalla, descubrí la causa.

Foto: una mosca sírfida. Y las patas de una araña cangrejo.

La araña estaba emboscada tras los pétalos de la rosa, como suelen hacerlo, y ahora está debajo de la mosca, lista para cenar.

Gesticulating madly

I'd never have seen her if she hadn't been dangling an inch from my nose. I was peering through a chain-link fence when a tiny crab spider rappelled down on her silk from the top bar, and hung there, gesticulating madly at me.

I wasted a few seconds arguing with the camera; "No, not the tree! Not the rocks! The spider, you goof, the spider!" And then she dropped away.

"Hello there!"

Hugs

Spinning

Stretching

Total time elapsed: 5 seconds. Then I got out the other camera, set it to Macro, and went looking for her. But she was hiding on the far side of the fence by the time I got there.

Rear view.

Oh, well.

Cropped 'way down. I see four eyes. And her silk thread.

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No la hubiera visto si ella no se hubiera colgado unos pocos centímetros en frente de mis ojos. Estaba tratando de mirar através de una cerca de alambre cuando esta arañita cangrejo descendió en su hilito de seda y se detuvo ante mis ojos, bailando en el aire.

Perdí unos segundos tratando de convencer a la cámara a mirar la araña; —¡Olvida los árboles! ¡Tampoco quiero rocas! ¿Estás ciega? ¡La araña, la araña! — Y por fin la vió. Y la araña se fue.

4 fotos: la arañita en su telaraña. Tiempo total: 5 segundos.

Saqué la otra cámara, y la ajusté para sacar fotos de cerca, y fui a buscar la araña otra vez. Pero cuando la hallé, estaba escondida tras el alambre. (Quinta foto.)

Foto # 6; haciendo zoom en la primera foto. Veo cuatro ojos, y su telaraña.

Hiding in plain sight

By the side of the road north, I came across a patch of tansy, always a good place to look for wasps and hover flies. But though I watched and waited and waited some more, the only pollinator I saw was a tiny moth.

What I didn't see until I looked closely at my photos were all the camouflaged beasties.

Here's the moth. But look! There's a crab spider about to leap. and a yellow caterpillar. and  maybe another crab spider.

But the crab spider was out of luck. 45 seconds later, the spider is still there, but the moth is gone. And there are at least three more spiders laying in wait here.

A crab spider, an ant, and what is that fat brown bug, not camouflaged at all?

Zooming in on the brown bug.

Update: BugGuide identifies it as a plant bug, Miridae sp., probably a Lygus bug.

Another crab spider

Moth, yellow caterpillar, white caterpillar, brown bug, fat crab spider.

Can you find the spiders? Just their stripy legs are visible.

Sharing the patch, pearly everlasting with a big brown bug and a big green stripy caterpillar.

While we're at it, there are two spiders here, pretending to be fireweed fluff in their messy web.

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Junto al camino hacia el norte, vi un grupo de flores de tanaceto (tansi), que siempre es un buen lugar para observar avispas y moscas polinadoras. Pero aunque las examiné y esperé y esperé aun más, no vi más que una sola palomilla. 

Lo que no vi hasta que en casa examiné mis fotos eran todos los bichitos en camuflage.

1. La palomilla. Pero, ¡mira! Junto a su cabeza una araña cangrejo lista para atacar. También hay una oruga amarilla y, creo, otra araña cangrejo.
2. Pero la araña no tuvo suerte. Aquí a los 45 segundos, sigue la araña en espera, pero la palomilla se escapó. Hay otras 3 arañas en esta foto. ¿Las puedes encontrar?
3. Una araña cangrejo, una hormiga, y ¿qué es ese insecto gordo color de café?
4. Haciendo zoom para ver mejor.
5. Otra araña cangrejo.
6. Palomita, oruga amarilla, oruga blanca, el bicho café, y una araña cangrejo muy gorda.
7. ¿Puedes encontrar las dos arañas? Apenas se les ven las patas rayadas.
8. Junto con las tansis, había muchas Anaphalis margaritacea, el perlado eterno. Aquí con uno de esos bichos cafés y una oruga grande, en colores verde y azul.
9. Ya que estamos viendo arañas, hay dos aquí, haciendo de cuenta que son pelusa de epilobio capturada en su telarañas tan desordenada.

Hidden treasure

It was all because of the skunk cabbage. I saw a patch of it through the trees as I drove past, and went looking for a trail entrance. I'd never visited Nunns Creek before; from the road, it looks like a difficult tangle of forgotten undergrowth, almost completely encircled by large commercial sites and weedy vacant lots. But I wanted to see if I could get near that skunk cabbage without rubber boots.

At a corner of the lot, behind a patch of untended, weedy shrubs, I found a sign and what looked like a trail head. I parked and went in. Weeds, broken trees, more weeds. And then - a patch of pink fawn lilies. Then more, dozens more, hundreds more, thousands more, all along a network of trails, going deep into the bush. In spots, they were joined by bleeding hearts. And, dotting this carpet of pink and green, a scattering of trilliums, white and pinkish.

A pair of pink fawn lilies, with their blotchy basal leaves, and a few bleeding heart leaves.

A young trillium, still small, very white.

An older trillium, pink. With a crab spider that I completely failed to see until I blew up the photo.

I circled around, walking down every branch of the trail system Except this one: it was barricaded.

More flowers tomorrow.

Very orange

Pumpkin spider ...

Says ...

"Have a happy and safe Hallowe'en!"

The better to hug you with ...

In the last clover still in bloom, fresh from the shower, a hard-working crab spider lays in wait.

Maybe there will be a last bee of the season.

"Come to my arms!"

On a mission

On the wall beside my desk, a male running crab spider made a thorough search, running up, down, across and back, looking behind shelves and furniture. He didn't find what he was looking for; I could have told him that and saved him the trouble. He was the only spider on that wall. The nearest female was outside, by the back door.

Philodromus dispar, adult male. About 5 mm. long, eyes to spinnerets.

The female he was hunting for is slightly larger than he is, and dressed in mottled light brown. Only the mature males wear black decorated with those whitish stripes down the sides.

They are hunting spiders, always on the move, chasing down their prey rather than sitting in a web waiting for it. But when breeding time comes around, the male forgets to eat and wears himself thin racing, racing, racing; looking everywhere for a mate. Does he know what he wants? Probably not; he just feels the need to run and look and look again. But he'll know her when he finds her.

On his way up again, just in case he missed her. The "boxing glove" ends of his pedipalps are another sign of a mature male.

He's examined that wall and the curtain at the window, and has moved on. Only a few metres left to go before he discovers the female's hangout. I wish him luck.

Not a purple spider

It was a purple day. We found purple irises in the sand at Boundary Bay, small, very purple irises in a driveway in Beach Grove, purple pansies in roadside gardens, and acres of purple lathyrus on the dunes. Add in a couple of purple shore crabs and a tall lilac bush. Purple!

Irises swaying in the wind.

I didn't even see the spider right in front of my nose until I looked at the photos. Here she is:

Laying in wait.

She's a crab spider, not camouflaged. But in the rainbow of colours all around, who's to notice? I'm sure she'll get a meal.

There's a second spider, if you look carefully at the top photo. Can you find it?

Besides purple, there was much more to be seen. We came home with hundreds of photos, and I was already behind with my sorting and processing. I need a rainy week!

And I've got baby, as in infant, barely here, hermit crabs! More later.

Flowers and a flower mimic

Beside the pathway that runs the length of our lawn, a native wild rose has established itself. Unfortunately, it is infested with another native in the rose family, a hardhack, Spiraea douglasii. I've been chopping and hacking this out, over and over again, for the last three years; it keeps coming back, and it strangles the rose, overwhelms it, and slurps up all the moisture in the soil. It's a pest. If I let it take over, it will make a messy, impenetrable thicket where nothing else can grow.

It's called hardhack, because if it is allowed to grow, the tangled, springy, woody stems become almost impossible to cut through by hand.

Typical habitats include lake margins, stream banks, swamps, bogs and wet meadows. Poorly drained lowlands in the Fraser Valley harbour thousands of hectares of Hardhack thickets. (From the Royal BC Museum)

In its place, in the wild, hardhack is one of my favourite plants. I love the flowers, tall heads of fuzzy pink blossoms that stay on the plant all winter, gradually fading until they turn a dusty, purplish brown. As a cut flower, they need no water; like the pearly everlasting, or a hydrangea, they make a good winter decoration.

Young hardhack clump. Image from Wikipedia.

Buds and opening flowers, like miniature, messy rosebuds.

Close-up of a mature flower head.

We passed a goodly bush along the roadside the other day, and I brought a handful of flowers home, along with a couple of sprigs of an unidentified white flower. As I trimmed them to put them in a vase, a green spider, barely the size of a small aphid, dropped out and ran along my finger. I shook her off and she fell into the leaves, where she promptly became invisible.

I had to spread all the stems out again, on paper towels, to find her, so perfectly did she blend in to the whitish green underside of the leaves.

Perfect camouflage; green to match the leaves, dotted pink to blend in with the flowers.

The white flowers.

Some of these crab spiders will change colour to match the plant they are on. They lay in wait for prey, sitting without moving, looking like part of the plant, until an unwary insect wanders too close. This little one is no exception; a minute after I'd replaced her on a leaf, I could no longer see her, although I had been watching carefully to see where she went.

Feisty!

This tiny crab spider came in my window this afternoon. It was a simple matter to catch her*; crab spiders rely more on immobility and camouflage than on running away. And she "hid" on my green rug.

Taking her photo was another story.

A brief pause

She is as sassy as a jumping spider, always wanting to keep her eye on me, always turning towards the camera. But where a jumper is curious, this one is challenging. However I shepherded her into the light, once I freed her, she turned immediately to attack, lifting her front legs in a threat stance and walking steadily towards me. I'd get her focused in the shallow field that the macro gives me, and have to back up, back up, back up some more, finally to lose her in the shadow under the lens and start again.

"I'm going to eat you!"

Not that there was any danger. She's barely an eighth of an inch long, nose to tail.**

I finally put her on a cloth draped over an ice pack. That slowed her down, although she still kept heading my way. Wanting to measure her (and sure she'd attack my fingers on a ruler), I tore off a piece of graph paper*** and set it beside her. She obligingly moved onto it; after all, the paper was between her and that tempting camera lens.

Well, thank you, little one. So helpful!

* Males have rounded or clubbed pedipalps, the two "feelers" at either side of her face. Females' (and youngsters', as Christopher pointed out in the comments) pedipalps are pointed.

** And crab spiders are harmless to humans, anyhow.

*** The squares are exactly 1/4 inch on a side.

She's in a tiny jar on my printer. Tomorrow, I'll put her outside to find her own breakfast. I don't think it will take her too long.

An hour to kill

I'm still sorting our vacation pictures, in no particular order. My whim of the moment; that's the deciding factor.

The mouse landed on Saltery Bay today.

A destination arrived at.

From Saltery Bay, the ferry would take us to Earl's Cove. But we had over an hour to wait.

Nobody in the ferry lineup

So we walked into town. What there is of it: on Google maps, I counted 20 houses, on two streets. We covered half of one of those.

Cliff on the first corner. There's a house on top. Great view!

A patch of lichen growing on the rock.

It's a leaf lichen, with brown fruiting bodies.

More rock dwellers, with a polka-dotted leaf visitor.

Hawk-weed on the lip of the cliff.

Red stems, green leaves, white flowers of salal.

Lamb's ear. I love these furry leaves. The whole plant smells like bubblegum.

Crow and long shadow.

In front of the road-side burger-and-breakfast stand. The people were friendly, the crow hungry. But we'd already breakfasted, so he got no scraps from us. Next time, maybe.

Mock orange intertwined with blackberry canes, in an abandoned garden.

Reflections in a log-cabin window.

Near the landing, this tiny spider caught the light just right. It was too small for the naked eye: all I could see was the web and a dot in the centre.

Araneus sp.?

The centre of the web has an unusual bubble pattern. And the camera sees four eyes, and the "owl" pattern (or is it a cactus?) on the back. Sometimes my camera surprises me.

Ferry line-up. Time to go back to the car.

And here's the ferry, comin' for to carry us home. (Homeward, anyhow.)