The pandemic has changed remarkably little about my daily life, aside from not going to coffeeshops. I am just staying inside more. This past Sunday it was finally decent-ish weather and, along with far too many other people, I headed down to the lake.
My destination was this little triangle of land by the lake, where the stormwater pond and the QEW monument are. It’s usually pretty good for the first spiders of spring, and there are sometimes interesting rocks to flip. And, more importantly, no one else pokes around there. Social distancing, baby!
As soon as I got there, I spotted this great fungus on a dead log.
As I expected, young long-jawed orbweavers (Tetragnatha) could be found among the trees and dead plants, especially the dense-needled spruce trees. They are always the first I notice in spring.
I liked this pretty long-jawed orbweaver’s delicate stripes:
I saw this nice little male mesh-web weaver (family Dictynidae) with a midge it had caught!
Just then, the wind kicked up. The little dictynid hastily tied down its midge, then hunkered down in its shelter at the base of the needles. It reminded me of a sailor in a storm lashing cargo to the deck, then battening the hatches.
Dead logs turned up intriguing finds.
There was also life to be found in the grass and leaf litter.
No leaves on the trees yet, but plants had begun to sprout in the undergrowth.
I just had to get a photo of this gorgeous lichen! If you didn’t know, lichens are wild. (See all the replies in this thread for more mid-blowing lichen stuff.) There were also more plants:
Before I went home I checked out those short jetties made of giant limestone blocks. You sometimes see people fishing there. Under a flake of rock I found more mite eggs! I was hoping to find hatched mites to perhaps figure out what they are, but it’s still too early in the year.
I was a little disappointed with how the photos turned out; many were just a bit out of focus. I switched to a different camera app and a new phone macro lens late last year, but haven’t had enough practice yet. It will improve.