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Susannah 🍁

@wweeta.bsky.social

1.4K followers 370 following 620 posts

I photograph and write about the world I see around me here on Vancouver Island: the forests and hllls, things green and wet, the none- to multi-legged critters that scramble, ooze, and slither on our beaches, birds and the occasional beast.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 5h

Mycelium (the threads are hyphae) of hidden fungus. With a couple of springtails. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/fung... #VancouverIsland #Mushrooms #Fungi #NaturePhotography #Mycelium #Invertebrates

Hair-thin white fungal threads fanning out from dense clumps, spreading over the underside of a piece of bark. There's a springtail at the bottom of the photo; a small, long oval-shaped critter with 6 legs and antennae longer than the legs. The bark is grey with deep cracks, creamy patches.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 22h

Thin-legged wolf spider, Pardosa sp., on moss on the forest floor. Arachtober 2025, Day 8. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates

A brown spider wearing, it seems, a dark brown jacket or scarf cinched at the waist, in actual fact, the cephalothorax with dark sides and a lighter brown pattern down the centre. The rest of the spider, abdomen and legs and all, is a splotchy light brown colour.
She is paused on a bit of moss At the lower left corner are two evergreen needles, with about half the needles in the photo; they measure, including the ends not included in the photo, up to about 3 cm. long, giving an indication of the size of the spider.
Beneath the moss, the forest floor is layered with dead leaves and chips of bark.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 1d

Update: a bolete, but Chalcioporus sp.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 1d

Boletus sp., and its pores. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/peer... #VancouverIsland #Fungi #Mushrooms #NaturePhotography

A orange/brown mushroom cap in a weedy lawn. The cap is hill-shaped, lumpy, with slug bites. The stalk cannot be seen.

The underside of this mushroom, showing the small, tightly packed pores and the top of the stem. The pore surface is orangey brown, the stem is smooth, lighter, more yellowish.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 1d

Very Messy, but efficient. Two spiders in their web in the forest. Arachtober 2025, Day 7. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates #SpiderWebs

Against a green background (an evergreen forest) a spider web catches the sunlight. It's attached to the sticks of a dead shrub; branches going every which way, broken and bleached. The web suits the branches; it's threads seem to be arranged randomly, except that they're more densely strung in an oval shape on the lower twigs, and strung tightly in an elongated semi-circle at the top of the oval.
The spider rests just under this "lid", belly-up, seen as another twig-like line with legs. There's a second spider almost at the top of the photo; a prospective suitor, maybe?
The web has caught many evergreen needles, and a few insects.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 2d

I'll keep the car. It's a spider magnet.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 3d

Hitchiker. Came back from a hike on my jacket. Now on the car. Cryphoeca exlineae, one of the "Soft spiders". Arachtober 2025, Day 6. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates

A brown and black spider on a grey, mottled background. Cephalothorax, mainly black, smooth. Abdomen; decorated in a "tree" pattern, narrow at the end of the abdomen, wide near the cephalothorax, 4 pairs of "branches", in a warm brown, against a black background and with a black "tree trunk" up the centre.
The legs are dramatically marked in alternating patches: brown, light brown, and black.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 3d

Tiny mushroom. Mycena sp., I think. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/tis-... #VancouverIsland #Mushrooms #Fungi #NaturePhotography

A very small, delicate mushroom, with a conical white cap, the top slightly button-shaped. It's a gilled mushroom; the gills are not visible, but their shadow can be seen through the cap. The stem is long and slender, white shading downwards to grey.
It's growing among small plants, mostly sedums; a sedum in front is well-defined, with smooth, succulent, pointed leaves radiating out thickly from the stem.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 3d

While the sun shines. Orb-weaver spider, Araneus diadematus, patiently waiting in her web. Arachtober 2025, Day 5. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates

A spider in her web. She's in a sunny window, and the sunlight makes her orange, brown and cream colours glow. She hangs head down, slightly angled towards the lower left corner, in the centre of her web, the silk threads showing faintly against the green reflection of shrubbery outside her window, at the top.
Her abdomen has a pattern of brown stripes; the long legs have alternating sections in orange or brown, separated by lengths of cream. Her chelipeds, curved under her mouth area, are slim, showing her to be a female.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 4d

Apex predator. A cellar spider with her meal; a woodlouse spider bigger than herself. Arachtober 2025, Day 4. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Predators #Invertebrates

Two spiders. The cellar spider; long, long legs, small cephalothorax, long, yellow abdomen. The woodlouse spider, her prey; a red-brown cephalothorax, much larger than her nemesis', a large, creamy abdomen, here wrapped in silvery silk, relatively short legs, now folded against her body.
They hang from the cellar spider's messy, almost invisible web, the cellar spider head down, her back to us, her fangs at the rear of the other spider's abdomen.
The woodlouse spider is a ground-dweller; she was captured, tied up, and hauled up to the cellar spider's chosen dining area on high.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 5d

Circus act. Spider, Araneus diadematus building her web. Arachtober 2025, Day 3. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Invertebrates

An orange and brown spider hangs head-down by two "toes" from her web in process. One foot holds a long strand of silk that goes from the top right to the bottom left corner; her weight makes a wide V of the line. Below that, there are a few thinner strands of the web, starting the first 3 spirals of the web. The other foot holds one of these.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 5d

Dress-shaped polypore on dead log. I go a bit crazy with this one at the end. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/in-w... #VancouverIsland #Fungi #Polypores #Mushrooms #Silliness #Nature

A dried-out polypore on dead wood. The mushroom is in the shape of a fan, with the narrow end at the top. And the wide end at the bottom has a double fringe, like the fringe on a dancer's dress.
The mushroom is pale brown, with darker brown details; so is the wood of the log. There's a bit of bark at the lower right corner, with some green lichen on it.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 6d

Jumping spider on the outside of my window. Arachtober 2025, Day 2. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachnids #Spiders #JumpingSpiders #Invertebrates

A black spider, head down, seen from the underside. She's — she because her chelipeds are slim — resting from her hunt in the cosmos outside the window. From this view, we see how the legs are connected to a central hump on the bottom of her cephalothorax; in front, we see the chelipeds and the sharp-pointed fangs. The abdomen is mostly smooth, slightly blurry in this photo. At the hairy rear end, on either side, the edge of the red markings on the top can be seen.
All the legs are hairy, as are the chelipeds, but the segments of the legs directly underneath the cephalothorax are hairless and glossy black, as is the central disc.
Background: the green of waving cosmos leaves.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 8d

A strange harvestman, (one of the arachnid "daddy long-legs") Posted to the Arachtober pool for Arachtober 2025 Day 1. Sorry; damaged, but living still. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Harvestmen #Invertebrates

A small, squarish beastie, rounded at the rear, with 8 black legs; the second pair, counting front to back, is much longer than the others, at least twice their length. (These, the harvestman uses as sensory organs, "feeling" his way.) Each leg has a knobby connection to the body. A couple of the legs are broken off; the harvestman was found this way, under a piece of bark. In front of the eyes, looking separate from the bulk of the body, which is mottled black, is a trellis-like arrangement, light-coloured, barely pale brown.
It's on my desk, striped, varnished pine.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 8d

Purple and white alyssums, loving the rain. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/09/happ... #VancouverIsland #Flowers #BCWeather #Bloomscrolling #Nature

A bed of alyssums; small, four-petalled flowers in a round cluster at the top of a stalk along which the seeds from previous flowers are ripening. At the top are the white alyssums. Below them, filling the lower left corner of the photo, are the purple alyssums.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 9d

Tiny, tiny mushrooms, with Douglas-fir cone, on the forest floor. Possibly Strobilurus trullisatus? New blog post with other finds: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/09/slow... #VancouverIsland #Fungi #Mushrooms #Nature

Three mushrooms with tall, thin stalks, gilled. They're almost dried out now, and the caps are wrinkled and yellowish. The stalks start out yellow at the top, turn brown, then end in a yellow fuzz at the base.
They're growing in duff, made up of Douglas-fir needles, bits of cones, a few dried leaves. Right behind them there's a Douglas-fir cone, the top half only. The full cone measures up to 9 cm. long, giving an idea of the size of the mushrooms, maybe 3 or 4 cm. tall.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 10d

Bottom of the forest in a gentle rain. Salal, trunks, moss, huckleberry on a stump. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/09/view... #VancouverIsland #Forests #Plants #Landscapes #Nature

A view of an evergreen forest from knee-height. The understory is covered with bright green native shrubs, mostly salal (Gualtheria shallon) and a few huckleberry (Vaccinium Parvifolium) bushes. Above that, are the deep brown, straight trunks of evergreen trees, mostly Douglas-fir; as the view lengthens we see a few shorter trees, carrying their evergreen needles at this level. On the right, there's an old, well-rotted stump; on top, a huckleberry bush grows; it's small, bright leaves are highlighted against the dark brown wood of the tree behind it.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 10d

Note: typing is difficult with a cat's tail swishing over the keyboard.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 11d

McCreight Lake, from a logging road on a hillside. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/09/sere... #VancouverIsland #Landscapes #EvergreenForests #Breathe

A view in greens and blues. In front, a row of native shrubs, mostly salal. Then a row of young hemlock evergreens. At the bottom of the hill, established forest, mostly Douglas-fir; taller trees, a darker green. Then there's the lake, a narrow strip of silvery water. And beyond that, more evergreen forest climbing up to the mountain tops. And overhead, cloudy sky, with one patch of blue.
A couple of hemlocks stand tall against the sky; their tips are drooping; a defining characteristic of young hemlocks.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 12d

Bracket fungus, on log, with mystery beetles. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/09/eye-... #VancouverIsland #Fungi #Mushrooms #Beetles #Escarabajos #Invertebrates #IdWanted

A white bracket fungus on a mossy log. The mushroom is mostly white on top, with a few streaks of brown, one near the outer rim. The underside is white.
A group of tiny beetles are feeding near the rim. They are dark brown, oval shaped, but with a pointed rear. And they all have a broad, whitish bar across the forward end of the elytra (the hard wing covers).
The moss on the log is small and dull green; the weather has been dry.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 13d

Plums on a volunteer prune-plum tree. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/09/file...
#VancouverIsland #Plants #Fruit #FruitTrees #VolunteerPlants #Nature

A branch of a plum tree, crossing the photo left to right. Lots of leaves, and hanging below them are 8 plums, 3 in front, the others partially hidden above and to the right. Most are still pink, or pink and yellow; one has turned dark blue. Background, more leaves, spots of blue sky shining through.

Reposted by Susannah 🍁

Luca @lucagalletti.bsky.social · 14d

OMG, I DIDNT KNOW THE WINGS WERE KEPT UNDER THE SHELL! I thought the shell was the wings.

Courtesy of National Geographic

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 14d

Subtly downgrade a band:
Difficult, but we'll cope Straits.

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Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 14d

Galls on hardhack leaves. And the larvae that hide inside. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/09/cute... #VancouverIsland #Invertebrates #Larvae #Plants #Wildlife

4 midge galls on the underside of leaves, built under the central vein. Long, fat, sausage-like packages, the ones in back green, the one in front a bluish red. On a white countertop.

And with the red gall cut open, several little caterpillar-like larvae crawled out. They are bright orange, with one rounded end, the other end coming to a point with a black dot on it. There are two larvae still on the ruptured gall, two in front on the countertop. Subfamily Cecidomyiidae, they say on BugGuide.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 15d

Dead tree at the foot of Lupin Falls, scrubbed and polished by wet season water, high and dry now at the end of summer. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/09/root... #VancouverIsland #Trees #Roots #Waterfalls #Nature

On the rocks in the basin at the foot of a waterfall; you can see some wet rocks in the background on the left. A fallen dead tree lies, angled downward, roots in the air. The tree is barkless; the trunk looks polished. The roots are clean, with no dirt held among the tangles. For half of the year, the waterfall washes this area; now it's reduced to a mere trickle. Above, rocks on the wall of the channel are covered with moss.