Album of Goldsborough Creek Field Trip

Selected photos by Rod Crawford from my 22 October 2020 spider collecting trip (also starring Jerry Austin) to a tract of maple forest on Goldsborough Creek, just west of Shelton, Mason County, Washington. The site looked lovely and promised numerous fall spiders, but litter and moss habitats were under par and we left with only 20 species. The next planned site was posted and forbidden, but I added 6 species just from the highway right-of-way. An unplanned, and not that impressive-looking third site had reasonable spider diversity and brought us up to a respectable 34-35 species.
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recent aerial photo of Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington overview of maple woods, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington
Recent view of our forest tract (S of creek) (Mason County) Overview of maple forest habitat                   © Rod Crawford
ferny slope, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington sword fern Pterostichum munitum, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington
Ferny slope                  © Rod Crawford Beautiful example of sword fern                  © Rod Crawford
bigleaf maple tree with crotch, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington Jerry Austin explores under bridge, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington
Bigleaf maple tree with crotch          © Rod Crawford O, venture not into that black abyss!                  © Rod Crawford
maple leaf litter, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington fall color of bigleaf maple trees, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington
Maple litter (disappointing)         © Rod Crawford Fall color by fog-filtered daylight                 © Rod Crawford
moss on bigleaf maple, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington siftong moss on discarded truck tire, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington
Plenty of moss on maples            © Rod Crawford Sifting moss on a discarded truck tire                 © Rod Crawford
Jerry Austin prepared to sift moss, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington the creek, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington
Jerry inspcts a moss spider            © Rod Crawford Goldsborough Creek                         © Rod Crawford
maple trunk, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington blue sky appears, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington
Maple trunk with moss            © Rod Crawford The fog burns off and blue appears!                        © Rod Crawford
snowberry Symphoricarpos albus in fruit, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington path into woods, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington
Snowberry in fruit                 © Rod Crawford The path from the gate into the woods                       © Rod Crawford
bank of Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington fall color in sun, Goldsborough Creek at Railroad Avenue, Shelton, Washington
Abrupt, beachless bank of the creek       © Rod Crawford Fall color by sunlight                   © Rod Crawford
roadside grass, Johns Lake Road at Highway 101 near Shelton, Washington Keep out sign, Johns Lake Road at Highway 101 near Shelton, Washington
Good sweeping grass by the highway       © Rod Crawford Much habitat behind the sign that kept us out                     © Rod Crawford
highway traffic, Johns Lake Road at Highway 101 near Shelton, Washington conifer branches with spiders, Johns Lake Road at Highway 101 near Shelton, Washington
Lots of traffic passed me while I swept      © Rod Crawford I reached a few conifer branches with spiders          © Rod Crawford

After being balked of our Johns Lake plan, we located a backup site in toothpick forest.

aerial photo, spider site on Dayton Airport Road near Shelton, Washington roadside Douglas-fir and pine branches, spider site on Dayton Airport Road near Shelton, Washington
Red dot marks our toothpick-forest site    (Mason County) Roadside Douglas-fir foliage                        © Rod Crawford
thatching ant mound, Formica obscuripes, spider site on Dayton Airport Road near Shelton, Washington lovely high stand of salal, spider site on Dayton Airport Road near Shelton, Washington
Thatching ant mound           © Rod Crawford Lovely but spider-free salal                         © Rod Crawford
roadside with lots of low tree foliage, spider site on Dayton Airport Road near Shelton, Washington forest floor, spider site on Dayton Airport Road near Shelton, Washington
Roadside with accessible tree foliage      © Rod Crawford Forest floor with no tree foliage, but understory and moss       © Rod Crawford
sun shines on roadside trees, spider site on Dayton Airport Road near Shelton, Washington sunset south of Shelton, Washington on 22 October 2020
Sinking sun shines briefly on the trees    © Rod Crawford Sunset south of Shelton                   © Rod Crawford
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This page last updated 25 October, 2020