Selected photos (by Rod Crawford, Laurel Ramseyer, Markku Savela & Shannon Bowley) from our 20 August 2011 spider collecting trip to the Watson Lakes Trail into the Noisy Diobsud Wilderness, Whatcom County, Washington. See also Laurel's brief account. Very late in the season, we certainly didn't expect to find so much snow in the subalpine meadow here! Despite this the season was well advanced, but with 4 people collecting we managed to get 23 species. Definitely the "last rose of summer" for spider collecting. But fall collecting is just around the corner! It was a beautiful spot, not too crowded, and with relatively few biting Diptera – except at the lower elevation pond where we started out, which was aswarm with mosquitos…

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Subalpine meadow on trail with adjacent talus        (USGS, 1998)	Our first stop, North Lilypad Lake             © Rod Crawford
Laurel stoically collects while Ron Austin scratches mosquito bite        © Rod Crawford	Everybody busy doing their thing              © Markku Savela
Bog surface at pond            © Rod Crawford	Riparian meadow at pond          © Rod Crawford

Abandoning the pond to its mosquitos, we went subalpine for the rest of the day.

On the trail, we pass Anderson Butte   © Rod Crawford	Tetragnatha versicolor on fir twig               © Shannon Bowley
We knew Mt. Baker would be snow-capped…  © Shannon Bowley	…but we weren't prepared for this at 4600 feet!           © Markku Savela
Snow-melt feeding creeks           © Laurel Ramseyer	Gamely, we slogged onward                  © Markku Savela
Melting snow continued up the valley        © Laurel Ramseyer	Shannon ascends a snow-free part of the meadow      © Markku Savela
Subalpine fir & mountain hemlock foliage        © Rod Crawford	Best snow-free section we found               © Rod Crawford
Strange egg sac probably made by…         © Laurel Ramseyer	…Philodromus alascensis (on Shannon's arm)            © Shannon Bowley
Pardosa dorsuncata         © Markku Savela	Talus, a promising field for collecting                © Laurel Ramseyer
Laurel takes a break  © Shannon Bowley	Jerry dauntlessly hunts talus spiders           © Laurel Ramseyer
Pika scat on talus         © Laurel Ramseyer	Epigynum of undescribed Cybaeus from talus           © Rod Crawford
There were a few blackflies trying to bite         © Markku Savela	Hover fly on flower            © Laurel Ramseyer
Mosquito casts ominous shadow    © Markku Savela	Mountain hemlock cone on snow        © Laurel Ramseyer
Ceratinella from fir foliage          © Rod Crawford	Trail vanishes under snow again       © Rod Crawford
Shannon sorts a foliage beat sample   © Laurel Ramseyer	Nice Pityohyphantes tacoma found in the woods        © Rod Crawford
Conifer litter & dead wood were productive  © Rod Crawford	These white flowers grew every place snow was melting     © Laurel Ramseyer
Shannon poses with her catch       © Markku Savela	Done for the day               © Shannon Bowley
Rod doing the most important part – labeling   © Markku Savela	Micaria constricta              © Rod Crawford
"Ze perilous passage"         © Shannon Bowley	Mount Shuksan on the way down           © Rod Crawford

This page last updated 12 June, 2015