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16 III 2024: At last, after waiting since Halloween, the year's first warm and dry days were in prospect! I had a plan in place and had applied for access permission to a small-scale landowner, Olympic Peninsula Timberlands, which rather surprisingly had a smooth, easy mechanism for that. Our goal was the vicinity of Vesta, a tiny community on the North River just across the Grays Harbor County line from the south. On the way, we stopped at a small "pioneer cemetery" outside Oakville, where a short visit bagged 13 species, and Laurel's grave-vases sample included Islandiana flaveola, a new state record! Vesta itself has an even tinier cemetery, boasting a single grave; there, ten species gave us a nice start on the new gridspace, as the day had become lovely and warm.
          A short distance up North River Road (but not quite as obvious as expected) was the gated track into the OPT lands, obviously not in use by vehicles but easy enough to walk. I proceeded along this to where a small tributary crossed it, and beavers had created a nice little pond and marsh. Here, amid peace and solitude, alder/cottonwood litter was fairly productive and I sifted 6 spider species, including a male of one of Laurel's research subjects, Ozyptila pacifica. Laurel came along somewhat later and sifted moss on the trees, adding 8 more including 2 species that will need further study. My beating of fern understory and a couple of hemlock trees added a final 6 for the marsh site.
          Back at the paved road, Laurel had pulled 9 species off a relatively new bridge across the North River, 4 of them adding to our sample, and 1 or 2 more additions off a mini water tower. In riparian meadows, I added nothing new from the grass but 3 more from small spruce trees. Sifting more moss near the bridge gave Laurel 2 more additions, and I added only one from some trees up a side road, making 39. A male Pardosa vancouveri that I took home to rear makes it an even 40, and Laurel is trying to rear 2 juvenile Phidippus from the bridge.

19 III 2024: The amazing end-of-winter warm spell had one day more to go, with Laurel not yet available, but I was able to recruit Kathy Whaley, enthusiastic newbie, again. Our goal: a place called Cinebar in central Lewis County, where I'd found a good tract of public-access-friendly Manke Timber land with a handy decommissioned road right up the middle.
          It was another balmy day. After getting a 13-species start from trees and understory near the highway, we hiked up the grassy old road (with a windfall here and there) until in something under a half mile, upper Stowell Creek crosses the road, with well developed riparian alder forest and some marshland. Pay dirt! And not a sign of other humans through the day.
          Sifting alder litter got me 9 species, and moss on some of the biggest alders added 9 more. Kathy had fixated on beating ferns, which got her 9 species but only one, Pocadicnemis pumila, we hadn't taken in other habitats. Afterward I swept the marsh (having to dodge some nasty cutleaf blackberry), adding 2 more. I had another nearby site to look at, so we moved on.
          In hindsight, we should have stayed where we were; I could likely have scared up some dead wood or other habitats. The young forest I'd expected up August Road had mostly been logged recently, and signs warned us off other tracts. We ended up beating trees within the highway right-of-way, which added only one more species (Kathy got it, not I). Back at the original site, with time only for a quick trip to the upper reaches of the Manke trail, I added a final 2. Even so, a 36-species total isn't bad at all! Our trip home ran afoul of an accident-slowdown near Fort Lewis, but we made it OK with another gridspace taken care of.

1 IV 2024: On April Fools' Day, Kathy and Laurel actually got together on the same trip! A warmer weather forecast sent us to Ryderwood Pond, the only public space (other than county roads) in the vicinity of Ryderwood, a small very secluded village whose population is all 55 and older! Did I say public? Signs imply that use of the pond (impounded by a dike-like dam), woods and trails is reserved for residents only, but the few we talked to didn't seem to mind visiting spider collectors. At first (after a stop on the way at Little Falls Cemetery), we thought we'd be restricted to one side of the pond due to a closed footbridge, but Laurel found another bridge at the other end so we were in!
          I began by sifting litter, getting only 3 identifiable species at the south end of the pond, but litter at the other end (still sparse) added 3 more. Kathy concentrated this time on conifer foliage with good results, getting 8 species including what looks like 2 different Grammonota. Laurel wandered about doing bits of this and that, sweeping Tetragnatha caudata from a marsh at the south end, finding a Tibellus on a cattail, tapping a few species (including a very interesting Walckenaeria) from Douglas-fir cones, getting Larinioides patagiatus in aerial webs, mature Pardosa vancouveri at the lawn edge, and three more species on a house across the street.
          All three of us beat fern understory, making that the richest habitat with 12 species. Laurel hadn't brought her sifter; I lent her mine so we wouldn't be without her usual moss sample (added 4 more). The grand total of 34 was perfectly adequate, but lacked several common species that I really would have expected to find. One problem was that a good bit of the site's habitat was destroyed by blackberry; and there might have been more subtle degradations of habitat; still, not bad and an ultra-pleasant place to spend a spring day.

And things seem to be proceeding nicely for another new field year!

This page last updated 10 April, 2024