Selected photos by Rod
Crawford from my 30 June 2022 spider collecting trip (with Jerry Austin) to a mid-elevation forest on the north slope of Slide Mountain, Whatcom County, Washington. With Laurel unavailable, Jerry and I journeyed north to bag a foothill site (1400' elevation) that marked the last presently accessible gridspace in western Whatcom County. Our central habitat was a rich riparian forest of conifers, alder and maple where our nameless road crossed a nameless creek. We also walked a ways up the road to open, clearcut habitats where Jerry got some additional field species from the roadside verge and I attempted to get conifer foliage spiders. I got a few, plus a Pardosa and a dome-weaving Neriene, but that clearcut was not designed for pedestrians! However, overall we got a perfectly fine 37-species sample.
| READ TRIP NARRATIVE | PHOTO ALBUM INDEX | MAIN JOURNAL INDEX |
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| Red dots mark 3 Slide Mountain sites (Whatcom Co., 2019) | Perfect field weather © Rod Crawford |
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| State highway through a rural landscape © Rod Crawford | Peaceful, sylvan surroundings of our main site © Rod Crawford |
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| Buttercup along the ditch © Rod Crawford | Buttercup-dominated roadside verge © Rod Crawford |
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| Linyphantes swept from verge © Rod Crawford | Sword fern on roadside bank © Rod Crawford |
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| Mossy alder trunk © Rod Crawford | The main (but nameless) creek at our site © Rod Crawford |
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| Productive leaf litter © Rod Crawford | Thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus © Rod Crawford |
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| More ferns, more moss © Rod Crawford | Trickle stream descends over rock © Rod Crawford |
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| Horrid cutleaf blackberry has foothold in the clearcut © Rod Crawford | Near-impenetrable clearcut jungle © Rod Crawford |
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| Xysticus luctuosus swept from verge © Rod Crawford | Young Douglas-fir trees tempted me into the maze © Rod Crawford |
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| Tree foliage wasn't all that productive © Rod Crawford | But it got me a few species, including Theridion tinctum © Rod Crawford | |
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| A pesky black-fly © Rod Crawford | Sunset from the freeway © Rod Crawford |
This page last updated 6 July, 2022