I'm not good at identifying brown moths, so I don't knows what species this is. It does have an odd redding bump on its thorax, though, with the white bit around it. I'm not sure whether that's part of the moth or if it's a parasite. One day I'll have to learn more about our local moths.

My next subject was just like the day before—a Zebra Spider on the wall next to the stairs leading down to the garage. This was a better photo, though, because the spider had just caught some prey. I'm not sure what the prey is, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's a mosquito.

Zebra Spiders are a type of Jumping Spider. Jumping Spiders don't make webs, they hang out, waiting for prey to land near them, and then they jump onto the prey. They can actually jump quite a distance. I had seen this guy pounce, and I think he went about 10 to 12 centimeters, horizontally along the wall. His body length is about 1 centimeter.

That was a nice little find, and on that high note, I went on to work. There wasn't much going on at work that day, so I escaped a little early and went to Tannery Park to see if I could find any dragonflies or other interesting subjects.

Tannery Park is one of several small riverfront parks maintained by the city of Surrey. It seems like at some point, the city bought up whatever little properties along the water were available, mostly old industrial sites, and turned them into parks.

At the park, I didn't find any dragonflies, which was a little odd, because I've seen them there on other occasions. However, I did find a very neat little fly with red eyes and boldly patterned wings.

The background trees in that photo are on a small island in the river. At really low tide, or when the river is pretty dried up, the island is sort-of connected to the bank. (I still wouldn't try to get over to it without waders, though.)

Actually, I've never been over to that islet...maybe I should try that someday.

After poking around the riverbank and marsh for a while, I took my tripod back to the car, and walked a little on a trail that stays on higher ground. A few Carolina Grasshoppers flew as I walked, and I sat down to take some shots of one that didn't scare too far away.

I always think it's good to practice stalking skills, even with the common stuff. One day I might run into something special, and those skills (and perhaps knowledge about how easily some types of insects or animals scare) will be handy.

My last subject at Tannery Park was this Black-and-Yellow Mud Dauber.

I like the mud daubers because of their thin pedicel—the part that joins the thorax to the abdomen. You can see that pedicel above; it's the little tube joining the wide part where the wings attach (thorax) to the wide, egg-shaped part below the back of the wings (abdomen). It's really weird to see two big body parts joined by such a thin little thing.

The other thing to note about that particular mud dauber is that he's missing most of one of his antennae. It's a dangerous world out there.

That bug was my last subject at Tannery Park, and I went home after shooting him, but he was not my last subject of the day.

Later that night, I was walking down the hallway in my condo when I noticed something large on the wall. It turned out to be some type of Cellar Spider or Harvestman (or Daddy Long-legs, as they're sometimes called). So it really wasn't a big spider as far as body size was concerned, but with its long legs it sure took up a lot of wall space.

As you can see in the above photo (where the spider is facing upwards), the second pair of legs is really long compared to the other sets. Harvestmen and Cellar spiders are good guys, in that they eat insects and they don't bite humans...they're not things to be afraid of.

I still had the macro lens on the camera, so I moved right in on the spider's body to get detail on that. I really liked his joints where his legs meet his body, and the little protrusion on the cephalothorax, which I think is a pair of eyes.

Zippy was interested in the spider, but he was sitting down and keeping his distance; he wasn't trying to eat him or anything.

After a few minutes, I chased the little critter onto a piece of paper and transported him outside to my balcony. That concluded my day's adventures.

Continuing my macro practice,
Tom