Enjoying the High Country

Crater Lake National Park

After two exceptionally smoky falls, we are having an absolutely wonderful fall.  Rains came early, enough so that the woods were moist and green through September.  Some falls it gets so dry we hardly dare breath for fear a fire will start.  Sorry ..... but living in the West has made me very fire conscious the past few years.  As I write this, California is in the throes of wildfire misery.

Since I drew the wasp and ruffed grouse we have made eight more day trips into the Cascades, including two all the way to Crater Lake National Park.  We enter the park from the North Entrance. ... and are immediately reminded of the fires from recent past summers.  New lodgepoles are already popping up in the stark forest.  Lodgepoles have special fire resistance cones, just waiting for the heat of the next wildfire to release their seeds.  Recovery will be slow at this high elevation, but it will happen.  Fortunately for us most of Crater Lake’s wildfires were far from the road.

One short stretch has an amazing collection of burls.  Every time I go buy I itch to sketch them.  Now that the fire has swept through I can see even more of them.  I’ve tried to find out the cause but even park officials are not sure .... a fungus? ...  an insect infestation?  Whatever the cause, we find a few here and there, and lots in an area about one half mile long.

For Dale and me, one of the big draws of Crater Lake N.P. is hoping to find a pika.  ( See my blogpost:  http://elvafieldnotes.blogspot.com/2014/10/where-are-pikas.html).  

Here are my notes for September 25:

We’re up at Crater Lake for the day .. clear blue sky, pleasant in the sunshine; cool in the shade.  We eat lunch at our ‘pika spot.’  We didn’t hear or see one all during lunch, but then I walked out and sat on a sun-warmed boulder, and sang ‘Ten Little Indians.’  (Sometimes I sing while waiting, hoping to convince the critters around me that all is well.)  One did scold, but I guess he didn’t like my singing. 

Later I walk to the next opening and see two – but far off.

But at the next opening I spot one near the road!  He is scampering with a big elderberry frond.  I can even see his haystack tucked under a large boulder.  At first he just wants to sit and inspect us, but soon he dares harvest another mouthful of greenery.  Trip after trip.  So cooperative!  He lets out a whistle when a noisy vehicle drives by, but is soon back to work. 

We photographed until the light dims and then drive up into the sunlight on the rim. 

Heading home we see this raven perched on a wisp of a snag right on the rim of Crater Lake’s caldera.  

Along Came a Spider

Along came a spider

who sat down beside her

Only instead of the spider coming to sit beside me, I chose to sit down beside her.  

Here are my journal notes from September third:  "Too much salt in my eyes.  Sweat runs in a little rivulet down my back. I told myself after a couple of years of 'bugging' (photographing insects) that I was going to be kinder to myself, that I didn't need to fry in the hot sun ... but here I am.  doing it again, and by choice. " 

This little saga started Aug 11.  While looking for insects at Elkton Community Gardens, we find a big black and yellow garden spider ( Argiope aurantia ) along the edge of the wetlands ... and another ... and another.  Five in all.  I immediately want to put prey in a web, but I can't find anything that I can catch.  It is parched and dry here.  

A week later we go back to Elkton.  I grab my insect net and go into my back yard to catch a couple of grasshoppers.  None.  Nada.  Unsettling!  Years ago when we fished for brown trout in August I often caught a couple of dozen in a few minutes -- good brown trout bait.  Over and over again this summer we notice a lack of insects, especially mid to late summer.  Did the last two summers of heavy wildfire smoke knock down insect populations?  Drought?  Something is different.

We still go to Elkton and I happened to be watching a spider when a bee flies into her net.  Bam! The spider has her saran-wrapped in silk so quickly I can hardly believe it.  That just makes me want to feed her all the more.  She obviously can catch her own food, but Dale and I want to photograph the whole process.  

I few days later, up in the Cascade mountains I find grasshoppers.  I quickly catch four.  The next day, September third,  we head back to our spiders.  Fortunately I have the foresight to pack my wiggly grasshoppers next to an ice pack.  

Only one of the original five garden spiders is still in the same spot, but the biggest was still there.  It is an awkward place to photograph.  I have to balance myself on wobbly cobbles to get close to her spider web.  Fortunately Dale has a stronger lens and solid footing.  I take out one chilled grasshopper and wiggle it into her net.  The spider zooms to the top of her guy lines and just sits.  The grasshopper doesn't move.  Only my sweat moves.  I wiggle the grasshopper some more and finally it starts its own wiggling.  

Zoom!  Down comes the spider.  She quickly spins the grasshopper round and round, wrapping it in sheets of silk in the process.  In two seconds the grasshopper is immobilized.  Spiders have multiple spinnerets and can use them individually or in tandem.  She obviously blasts away with several spinnerets.  

After wrapping her prey she moves to another spot on her web.  Spiders eat by injecting a digestive enzyme to liquify the innards of their prey.  She now needs to give the enzyme time to work.  

I decide to see if she is interested in another grasshopper ...... yes!   She wraps that one just a quickly and also sets it aside.  AND she catches a small insect of her own.  

I can't help but wonder how much silk she has and since there aren't any other spiders to feed, I offered her a third grasshopper.  This is where it became apparent that chilling my grasshoppers was a good idea.  This grasshopper had warmed a little and quickly gets away from me.  I try again, and loose that one too.  But she catches a fourth insect without my help.  She obviously can generate gobs of silk between meals.  She now has four insects to feed on.  We are heading home, going to get out of this heat.