Edson Fichter

I wandered back to the Edson Fichter trail today, and am happy to report that I'm feeling much, much better now. Hopefully this will still be the case tomorrow morning. I'm curious to see what this area will look like when it greens up. From the looks of things, this was a very disturbed area that they're trying to turn back over to native plants...but in lots of places, invasive weeds are winning. Still, there are plenty of currant bushes starting to bloom. Oh, and that decorated tree I saw last time? This time I got a better look, and realized that the "decorations" are actually a vine of some sort. Probably parasitic, but I don't know for sure. It's easier to tell that the vine isn't part of the plant now that the trees and bushes are starting to green up. The vine is pretty pervasive through the area.

I did get some bird pictures, but those will wait until I can look them up. One I know is either a housefinch or the finch that looks a lot like a housefinch. The other...I don't think I've ever seen before! I've heard the call a lot, but never managed to find the source. Anyway, I'll stop babbling now and allow you to decide whether you want to look at the eight-legged cohort who shared the bridge with me.


I watched the spider building its web for a while (I think that the second spider was trapped in the web, but I'm not sure), until the wind either blew it out, or made it seek shelter. I'm not sure which, as I looked away at the wrong moment.


And this one is from the same picture, but zoomed in on the spider. I believe it's an orb-weaver of some sort; at some point I'll look it up and see if I'm right.