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28 II 2025: Laurel warned me that some field weather was near, and we both decided on the Randle area (White Pass Highway, eastern Lewis County), where I had a trip plan and 10 old records as a head start. We went south the "back way" through Elbe and arrived on schedule; I had 4 pre-selected sites E and SE of the town, and we started with Silver Creek Cemetery. Laurel got 7 identifiable species in grave vases, I added 6 from conifer foliage, and we both checked out service sheds for 3 more. Laurel's shed had wasps on it, while mine had western boxelder bugs! Then ho for a giant grassy field around tiny Gibbs Lake, SE of Randle. Alas, at this season the field is a marsh! I added 3 species sweeping grass (and dodging cutleaf blackberry) right at the less-wet fringe; Laurel added 3 more from a rock outcrop across the road. Up a side road, I found a little more good conifer foliage (though a promising tree farm was posted), adding 4 for a total so-far of 26. By this time we were getting decidedly warm; fortunately our next stop was shady.
          Not far north of our marsh, a side road went between the Cowlitz River and a rocky bluff, giving access to a delightfully mossy and leaf-littery fringe of maple with some alder. I sifted 9 species from the litter (including a Walckenaeria I don't recognize), while Laurel got 13 species sifting moss at the other end of the car. Ferns on the bluff face and webs on the guardrail added respectively 2 and 1 that were different. We now had 46 species!
          I had one preselected site left, north of the road to the cemetery on national forest land, where I hoped to find better conifer foliage. No such luck, but Laurel added Theridion californicum from salal. On our way out, we stopped at the local high school where we each added one species from window frames, Laurel's being a Phidippus she had to rear. This winter trip netted us 49 species, and 9 of the 10 old records were different, making 58! And now it was time for a pilgrimage. In the latter part of the 1980s Mt. St. Helens project, our team often drove in to the Pumice Plain from Randle, and stopped to eat on the way home at an out-of-town burger joint, the Huff-n-Puff. It's still there! And the burgers are OK, too, with delicious shakes.

5 IV 2025: At the end of last summer's Skate Creek trip, Laurel and I stopped at Evergreen (Packwood) Cemetery, in an adjacent gridspace, for an 8-species head start on a future visit, but didn't get the "grave vase spider." Today was the future visit (with Kathy added to the mix), and Laurel wanted to confirm whether that species was really there. She found it! At the cemetery, the three of us added 10 species to the previous 8.
          Our main collecting for the day was at nearby Skate Creek Park, 700-odd acres on lower Skate Creek once planned for a state park, but somehow never made the cut; it's now managed by a local group of "friends." The area near the tiny north-end parking lot had both moss and cottonwood litter. My litter sift added only 3 species, but Laurel's moss sift added 11 more including an amazing male segestriid that almost has to be Segestria, but sure doesn't look like one; obviously new! I headed downstream to a second site, where Kathy was productively tapping cones and beating Douglas-fir foliage, adding 5 more. Later I tried to sift maple litter at this site and added only one.
          Farther downstream still, I found the habitat I was aiming for, an apparent "old gravel bar" area from before a shift of the streamcourse, but so rocky it's still mostly open. The field-layer of grass and herbs here is so sparse it's barely visible, but sweeping it still got me 5 species including rare Misumenops importunus! I also got an active wolf spider (saw others that evaded me), and added 5 more from conifers in the open. Laurel passed me and stopped in somewhat similar habitat on a gravel "island" where she found large Pardosa lowriei (which she had to rear) and 3 more species additions. Back near the picnic table Kathy had taken a bunch of Neriene radiata from sun-highlighted webs, and I swept a few others from sparse understory. Our day's total was 42, making 47 with the species from last summer. And Kathy was willing to stop for milkshakes (which impressed her mightily) at the Huff-n-Puff.

14 IV 2025: Spring was much in evidence when Kathy, Laurel and I came to an area of mostly timber company land south of the Cowlitz River. We stopped first at Lone Hill Cemetery (perched at the end of a high ridge with a panoramic view), where Laurel got her grave-vase spider but not much else. Then on to our main site where Otter Creek crosses Evans Road a mile or 2 before it stops at a Weyerhaeuser gate. The creekside land belongs to friendly Port Blakely Tree Farms. The creek looked oddly muddy or turbid, not what I'd expect of otter (or even salmon) habitat, but the riparian woods had reasonably decent spiders. I sifted litter and beat salal; Laurel sifted moss and swept along the creek; Kathy chased wolf spiders, beat understory, and tapped 50 Douglas-fir cones. In all, the site produced 26 species, least common being Bathyphante gracilis from litter.
          Our second site was farther along Evans road (its end in sight), belonging to Skykomish Resources which also allows access. A gated road was lined with rather thin but still productive Douglas-firs that produced no less than 17 species for my and Kathy's beating, notable finds including Rhomphaea fictilium and Dismodicus sp. #1 (which is not all that rare but seldom found mature). Laurel swept roadside ditches, getting among others, rare Clubiona kastoni, a first for her. She and I beat Scots broom which, besides the usual Theridion simile, had a number of Cyclosa conica and a few Ceraticelus fissiceps. I beat hanging ferns on a bank, adding another Clubiona species and a mature Ozyptila. Between our two main sites we had a fine 43 species for the day.
          On our way back to the freeway, we made our burger stop at Betty's Place just outside Toledo, another of our favorites which we'd discovered on a 2019 trip. Traffic was lighter than usual going home.

23 IV 2025: With Laurel unavailable, it was Kathy, Jerry and I who tried for a spider sample in timber company land SSW of the small cluster of buildings called Wildwood. As I had hoped, the gated road (on Sierra Pacific land) was open to hiking. We crossed the South Fork of the Chehalis River on road 500, turned onto side road 530, and walked into exceptionally lovely early-Spring terrain that filled us all with delight. I stopped to collect from riparian habitats at a bridge across a substantial, but unnamed, tributary creek while the others continued a little further, seeking conifer forest.
          At the creek, I swept 3 species from roadside grass, and 3 bags of leaf litter produced 7 spider species and some non-spiders of interest; I caught one Pardosa species on the road and beat 4 additional web-makers from ferns. On Kathy's return, I set her to sampling from stumps, but what she found was all juvenile; however, she'd taken worthwhile species at a junction up the hill, from Douglas-fir foliage and cones. She headed back to the car for her nap, while I sifted 7 more species from moss, making 21-22 from this first site.
          At Kathy's junction, she'd added 7 more species which I supplemented with 2 more she'd missed on the tree foliage. Further along road 530, at the second bridge over a second nameless creek, she'd taken 5 species from guardrails, one of which added to the total. At this point, with the time limit approaching, I tried vainly to figure out where Jerry'd gone, then headed back to the car myself; fortunately Jerry caught up with me, having added 8 more species from grass, Douglas-fir and moss, plus a very nice active Tarentula kochii. We found Kathy hadn't had a very restful time; she'd encountered a talkative, not fully sober group of locals quite sure that all spiders belong to the only 2 species they'd ever heard of (neither of which lives in Lewis County). It's for such people that I made the spider myths website! Then homeward with no further adventures and 39-41 species.

4 V 2025: This time both Kathy and Laurel were unavailable, and I thought I'd try Sayna Parsi, who last managed a field trip in October 2023. By gum, she could go on Sunday with a good prediction for the Columbia Basin. We found our goal without trouble, a grove of Eleagnus or "Russian olive" along a shallow watercourse that becomes a gully farther south. Parking, we entered the grove and began to sift litter. The pickings seemed no better than fair at the time, but in the end this sift sample gave me 8 species, 6 of them more or less rare! The jumping spiders weren't Neon as I thought but Talavera minuta. There was Pocadicnemis occidentalis, Ebo evansae, and three dictynids: Dictyna minuta (seen once before), D. bicornis (twice), and Argenna obesa which I've never before personally collected!
          Our Eleagnus grove was by no means mosquito-free (there was at least one tick also), but I found no bites afterward, while Sayna complains of at least eight! Anyway, after sifting I swept one more species from grassy understory, beat another from tree foliage, and got two more by shaking tumbleweeds. Then I crossed the road where there was a marsh, too deep for my tennis shoes alas, and prospected the road guardrail for spiders, finding a nice male Phidippus audax — which managed to escape while I was chasing it around in my net, curses! The steppe around our grove was otherwise a wasteland of pre-tumbleweed thistle, so we now moved to a second site a short distance east.
          At the bend in the road where unpaved road 15 continues eastward we found much higher quality shrub-steppe habitat. Here I swept a tract of grass and herbs (that happened to be sagebrush-free) for 4 good species, including a male black widow. Much rock-turning, however, added only Psilochorus hesperus, and beating sagebrush, while it produced a number of specimens, added only Philodromus histrio. Our day's total of 18 species would have to be supplemented, but that proved easy to do on the next trip. That great sift sample made this day's work very worthwhile.

11 V 2025: When Laurel learned of our May 4 field site in Grant County, she decided she wanted to sample cemetery spiders at Royal City east of there. So the following Sunday saw us at the Royal City "Memorial Garden". My own first care was to beat sagebrush in a tract across the driveway from the actual cemetery, which got me at least five species. A post-church rush of cemetery visitors had arrived just after us, so Laurel occupied some time by collecting three species on the side of an equipment garage, then beating tall juniper shrubs along the east edge (4 species). A row of eastern white pines along the south edge had dropped their cones across the driveway in the sagebrush, and these produced three very interesting additions. The cemetery now being deserted, the grave vases yielded 8 good species, two of which (a Disembolus and a Meioneta) I haven't figured out yet!
          While Laurel did all this, I moved south to an Eleagnus grove owned by the school district, hoping to repeat last week's litter-sifting triumph; I didn't quite manage that, but did get 4 identifiable species. Then we moved a few blocks west to a complex of school buildings. I searched the walls of one for spiders, almost in vain (one spider!). Laurel had spotted a secondary irrigation canal just outside the school fence, where sweeping got her 5 species, and rock-turning, 3 more. We now had 32-33 species from Royal City, with a prior record adding one more. There'd been a 20% chance of showers, but it all fell east of us from ominous black clouds.
          Last on our agenda was a stop on Lower Crab Creek (at a bridge) to supplement last week's sample with at least 3 more species. It was a fine and scenic spot, just under the north wall of the Saddle Mountains, cast with ever-changing, impressive shadows by the sinking sun and scattered clouds. Sweeping and beating vegetation, plus plant-tip dictynid webs, brought the 6898 gridspace from 18 to 29 species, capped by a big mature Cheiracanthium inclusum that Laurel found in his retreat on green rabbitbrush. We started for home — or started to! Just past Beverly, something seemed amiss with our progress, and Laurel stopped to find the left front tire as flat as any pancake. What punctured it, we never knew. The AAA man arrived maybe 2 hours later, and the spare was only good for 50 mph, so we got home well after midnight…

23 V 2025: Now Laurel had a yen for cemetery samples from Naches (pronounced na-cheese) in the upper Yakima Valley. I was able to find two cemeteries, a partly-wild park, and a large DNR-owned sagebrush tract all in the 6706 gridspace. Kathy drove us, and we arrived at Naches Cemetery on schedule, but it's a good thing we had other sites; staff told Laurel the grounds had been sprayed (perhaps for Japanese Beetle?) and the vases cleaned lately! Laurel did get 2 (non-native) species from the vases and Kathy got Steatoda triangulosa from valve boxes, but I found zero spiders in foliage.
          Our second site, Cleman's View Sports Park, did have halfway decent spiders, even though a bit sparse. Despite the emphasis on lawns and playing fields, the riparian zone along the river offered grassland and woodland. I began by sifting cottonwood litter, for just a few tiny spiders; I was pleased later to find them mature Tachygyna sp. #2. Laurel and I did a lot of grass sweeping, both in the open and the shade, getting 12 species between us. Laurel made additions from pine foliage and pine cones; Kathy added 3 nice ones from willow shrubs and one more from buildings. At this point our running total was 23-24.
          Now, up Naches-Wenas Road to a square mile of state-owned shrub-steppe. We parked on a dirt road, and Laurel and I beat 8 more species from sagebrush. Kathy added two good ones sweeping grass and herbs, and Laurel found a Titanoeca under a board (having gone over a hill "to see what she could see"). Then for our last stop, Wenas Cemetery, with its impressive monument to a bull bison, founder of a local herd. Laurel added two more grave-vase species and Kathy got a so-far unidentified Grammonota from pine cones. We headed north and west for our Mountain High Hamburgers with 37-38 species in the vials.

31 V 2025: The one day this week Kathy and Laurel were available turned out to be the one day with a dodgy weather forecast. Oh well, we decided to go anyway, and in the end were glad we did. I picked the site with least chance of rain (20% when I checked, zero, or at least less than 10, when Laurel looked). To wit, Hog Island river access on the lower Cowlitz River. Our travel was straightforward, we found the site easily, and it was cloudy but dry at the lush riparian forest with grassy places. Seeing that grass gave all three of us the idea of sweeping it; between us we swept 13 species, but Laurel had the best luck, with both sexes of an apparently new Walckenaeria species! She also got a nice male Micaria pulicaria under charred wood in a fire ring. Kathy beat roadside shrubs, adding 5; Laurel found a vertical rock face that supported spider-rich foliage, and sifted a few from sparse, dry moss; I added several from litter plus a riverbank Pardosa. By this time, it was drizzling off and on, but never enough to get foliage really wet, and anyway we had 31 species from the site.
          For the second half of the trip we drove up Casey Road into state-owned timberland (not shut behind a gate, for a change) and found a recently planted clearcut with more Douglas-fir foliage than we could shake a net at. Kathy and I got 19 species from this (some duplicating the river site), including until-now rare Dictyna olympiana, also taken (in some numbers) in 3 other habitats here. The sun started to appear; a number of Pardosa wolf spiders were active, and I thought they might be diferent, but they were the same P. vancouveri as by the river. Then a black cloud followed the sun and it actually rained enough to make the ground wet. Luckily, the sun returned and dried it all off! Laurel beat broom, getting no species different from the trees; found one addition under dead wood; got one more (and a tick) on thistle heads; and swept clearcut grass, adding three including a juvenile that appears to be Oxyopes salticus, which once wasn't known north of Oregon. Kathy found a male Phidippus johnsonii, I believe her first of this spectacular jumping spider, and I got one more from ferns in adjacent forest. Our total from this gridspace, 48-49 species, despite the brief rain.
          Laurel wanted to get a proper sample from vases in the Toledo cemetery, and had us drop her off there while we got burgers at Betty's Place. Eight species from the cemetery, all but one additions for Toledo.

13 VI 2025: I'd discovered an unsampled area we could access by a short hike up a Sierra Pacific timber road, starting on Highway 7 between Elbe and Morton. Not far north of that is the little-known (because not on a highway) town of Mineral, featuring an unsampled cemetery, a sure drawing card for Laurel! With Kathy driving, the three of us arrived at Mineral Cemetery on a cool but dry day, and Laurel added three species from grave vases to that already well-sampled area. Then onward to SP Road 550, where it was a short stroll from the gate to Roundtop Creek, flowing north from a local divide. The riparian zone had lovely moss, stream cobbles in gravel bars, tall ferns, a concrete bridge, and extensive stands of very tall grass, enough to light up three spider collectors' eyes! Kathy began by sweeping grass, and got a fine 9-species sample including some unusual red color variants of species not usually that color. I didn't find very much leaf litter, but enough for a 5-species sample (but 3 of those were probably from included wads of moss).
          Alongside the creek ran an old logging railroad, still with tracks but clearly not usable by trains. But while I sifted, something colorful appeared far down the tracks. Closer and closer, resolving into a number of low-slung blue & yellow "rail cycles" pedaled by up to 4 people each, taking a forest tour starting and ending in Mineral. We had no idea such a thing existed! Anyway, our streamside collecting continued with moss-sifting (Laurel) and fern-beating (me). Laurel's cobble-turning produced the best species, rare Cybaeopsis spenceri, and others. Kathy beat streamside foliage and Laurel collected from the bridge. Our total catch from Roundtop Creek was 26 species.
          Past the creek, the roads continued through regrowth of diverse ages, where I hoped for a conifer foliage sample. Kathy and I both took a right turn up a side road, where she found a recent windfall to beat, but most other branches were hard to reach; a nearby open area (seen on aerial views) was down a very steep slope. But while she turned back, I continued a little further and found a 2013 clearcut with regrowth of just the right age. Here, I could beat Pseudotsuga and Abies to my heart's content, and kept getting more species, 14 eventually. There was also daisy-rich grass to sweep and some rocks to turn, the latter revealing uncommon Callilepis pluto.
          Laurel had sailed by our side road and continued to a younger (2018) clearcut on a ridge. Her beating there, and Kathy's windfall, both yielded species I didn't get, including (for the second trip in a row) formerly rare Dictyna olympiana. One wolf spider species became active late in the day. Our successful total, 41 species.

24 VI 2025: Back in 2018, Laurel and I had collected along the Centralia-Alpha Road, at the eastern, Alpha end. The western end (where I'd also prepared a trip plan) remained unsampled until today, but my 7-year-old plan still worked! Through a bit of wrong-way driving, we ended up visiting the planned sites out of sequence, beginning with a timber road that goes through 3 different companies' land, starting with Port Blakely which welcomes hikers. Through the initial clearcut (cut 2009), the sides of the road were rich with grass and daisies, backed by young Douglas-fir (and unfortunately, lots of invasive cutleaf blackberry). Laurel swept 6 species from the roadside, and I beat 8 from conifer foliage; then we continued up the road into Jorgensen Timber land which had a grove of large alders. There, I sifted a bit of leaf litter (adding one species) and Laurel did better with trunk moss, adding 7 species; then a nice male Micaria pulicaria ran across her sifting cloth. We had 21 species in all from this first site.
          Some distance farther west was a tract of established second growth forest where I expected to be able to stroll along an overgrown road. The tank trap blocking the old road is still intact, but the road itself had merged into the forest! However, this tract has a well-grown fern/salal understory that ultimately yielded 8 species to our beating nets. Laurel decided to tap wood from the rather numerous rotting stumps and got 6 more, but 2 of those were repeats of her earlier moss sample.
          Before heading for home, we wanted to visit one more of my original 6 projected sites in the area, and picked another Port Blakely clearcut (not very far east), the same age as the first one but with less blackberry. I got a better conifer foliage sample here, adding 4 species. Laurel swept the more extensive road-surface field, adding Erigone aletris and the season's first adult Philodromus josemitensis. The most interesting habitat proved to be some sheets of paper someone had littered the roadside with; under them were an adult Phrutotimpus, a juvenile Zelotes, and an adult Drassyllus depressus (usually taken only by pitfall), the day's most interesting species. I also found some tasty red huckleberries here! Our day's total for the new area was 35 species.
          I didn't mention earlier that we started the day with a revisit to Alpha Cemetery (sampled on the 2018 trip but we didn't know about grave vases then). The vases added 2 species to that area, including the undescribed linyphiid we are studying.

Hold on to your hats, another field year continues!

This page last updated 4 July, 2025