Author | Lightnews

Susannah 🍁

Susannah 🍁

@wweeta.bsky.social

1.4K followers 370 following 650 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 · 15h

Proud mamma. Cellar spider holding her eggs. About 50 spiderlings on the way! Arachtober 2025, Day 24. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #VancouverIsland #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates #Wildlife #NaturePhotography

The cellar spider, a light brown spider with a short, round cephalothorax and a long, sausage-shaped abdomen, and extremely long legs, hangs upside-down, holding her egg sac in her mouth. She has a brown patch on the top of her thorax, a long brown pattern on the abdomen. Two of her eyes are visible and gleam in the light.
The eggs are barely held in a light silk container, so that each individual egg can be seen clearly. (They remind me of a bunch of grapes. Pale brown grapes.) From this angle, I can count 18 eggs; the sac will contain from 30 to maybe 50. Later, the spiderlings' legs will be visible through the egg casing, but not yet; these are only a few days old.
Background; a sky-blue ceiling and mamma's shadow.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 15h

Let it rain. I've an African violet to look at. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/when... #VancouverIsland #Bloomscrolling #Flowers #NaturePhotography

Zooming in to the centre of an African violet. Three flowers here: deep blue, shading to purple. The base of one flower is seen at the upper left; the centre of two others in the centre and the lower left of the photo. The centres contain the pistil; a purple stalk with a round, green ovary at the base, and the stamen; a short, curved stalk with 4 egg-shaped yellow anthers, the pollen containers, at the top.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 1d

Midnight prowler. She has good night vision; her eyes have a reflective layer, like a cat's. Arachtober 2025, Day 23. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #VancouverIsland #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates #Wildlife #NaturePhotography

A wolf spider on a variegated grey carpet. 2:18 AM, and she's out hunting for breakfast. She is mostly charcoal grey, almost black, with brown legs and a brown stripe down the centre of her cephalothorax and the front of her abdomen. Her eight eyes are visible here; the top four are large and reflect the light.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 1d

As one does.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 2d

Moss on a piece of fallen bark. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/brou... #VancouverIsland #Moss #NaturePhotography #Plants #Lichen

A rough, scaly piece of bark, on a desk. Moss grows on the bark; it may be a "tree" moss. Each stem has leafy branches; these look like small green brushes.They lie tangled on one section of the bark. A couple of stems hang down over the edge. The rest of the greyish bark holds tiny, pale blue/green lichens.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 2d

Doorkeeper. She stands guard at my front door, rebuilding her web after I walk through it. On duty 24/7. Arachtober 2025, Day 22. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #VancouverIsland #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates #Wildlife #NaturePhotography

An elegant, black, brown, and cream spider, hanging head down in her web. We're looking at her web from the side, seeing the almost vertical guide lines.
Two legs, stretched out straight, hold the web above her. The next two pairs of legs are held close to the body; their tips come down in front to just touch the web. Then the front pair arches right, down, and back left to grasp the web again a full body length in front of her face.
Background; grey wall, window frame.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 3d

Hostas, showing off their glorious fall colours. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/colo... #VancouverIsland #Plants #Fall #Leaves #NaturePhotography

A profusion of leaves of one of the large-leaved hostas, leaning over a wall. Some are still green, others are bright yellow; some are green with yellow edges. All are heart-shaped, heavily ribbed, on strong stalks.
The wall they lean on, and the posts on either side of their opening, are grey. On the right, there's a wooden box, painted a warm brown with a design in blue and green; a flower, and the word HERB, of which the B is off the screen. On the far left, beyond the last post, more plants hang over the wall.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 3d

In a sunny breakfast nook. Cross spider (cross is her name, not her mood, especially here) with a crane fly for breakfast, warmed & highlighted by morning sunlight. Arachtober 2025, Day 21. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #VancouverIsland #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Invertebrates #Wildlife

A spider and her prey against the light, which shines through the legs and the wings, outlines the two bodies. The spider is head down, with one leg holding the web above the two. She's mostly orange; her abdomen from this angle looks black.
The fly is a crane fly; bulky cephalothorax, long, slender abdomen, large wings, extremely long legs; one reaches out to the left, twice the length of the body.
Background; the grid of a window screen, against a blue sky.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 4d

Huntress. A black and red jumping spider (Phidippus johnsonii) prowling through a forest of cosmos leaves and stems. Arachtober 2025, Day 20. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #VancouverIsland #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates #Wildlife #NaturePhotography

Side view of a small spider, mostly solid black, except for a red patch and a couple of white specks on the side of her abdomen. (The far side, too, of course, but only a hint of that is seen from this side.) She stands on narrow, blade-like leaves of cosmos flowers, angled downward towards the left, head raised, alert, pedipalps held forward, ready to grab. Any second now, she will leap after her prey, invisible to us.
Surroundings and background: leaves, stems of cosmos; hard to tell which is which, the leaves are so narrow. A bit of pink towards the top, out of focus, is probably a flower.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 5d

Sowbug burrito. Steatoda sp. spider with her wrapped dinner. Arachtober 2025, Day 19. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #VancouverIsland #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates #Wildlife #NaturePhotography

A spider holding a sowbug, well wrapped in silk. The spider has her rear towards us, head down, two legs held above herself, holding her in the web. The other 6 legs are dealing with her prey. Her abdomen is round, patterned in black and light brown; the legs are that light brown, with dark knees.
From this angle, we can see the underside of her cephalothorax, the plate where the legs attach, and in front, the fangs and the two small pedipalps.
Her dinner is a sowbug, a critter well protected on top by its hard exoskeleton, but with a vulnerable underside. The spider has it upside-down, well tied up, and with the underside exposed to her fangs, as if in a bowl, ready to eat.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 5d

Gull in the rain. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/fore... #VancouverIsland #Birds #Birding #Gulls #Wildlife #NaturePhotography #Weather

An adult gull on the shore. She's white and grey; white head, grey wings and tail feathers. Her beak is yellow, with a red spot near the tip. Her legs and feet are pink. She stands facing the water, looking through a row of beach grasses, bent and whipping about in the wind.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 6d

A speck on the wall. Tiny spider, barely past the spiderling stage. Steatoda sp., probably. Arachtober 2025, Day 18. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #VancouverIsland #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates #Wildlife #NaturePhotography

A tiny, chubby, black and brownish spider with hairy legs and abdomen. Hanging head down on a wall. The white spot on the wall, (ghostly white face with dots for eyes and a peaked hat) half the size of the spider's abdomen, was too small to see with the naked eye.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 6d

Isn't she beautiful? Araneus diadematus in her web in my kitchen window. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/spid... #VancouverIsland #Spiders #Arachnids #Arañas #Invertebrates #NaturePhotography #Wildlife

Orange and brown spider, seen from the side, hanging head down in her web, legs curving elegantly, touching the web with the tips. The web is slightly slanted towards us, so we see the spokes and spirals in the upper part. Background, plain grey/green.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 7d

Flowers/not flowers. Euphorbia sp. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/not-... #VancouverIsland #Bloomscrolling #Euphorbia

Tiny, 3 millimetre, green and white "flowers". They are green cup-like structures, called Cyathia, holding nectar glands, miniature male flowers, and the female flowers, which protrude from the mouth of the cup on their own green stems; the ovary hangs outside the cup; a green ball with white "spikes" at the mouth. 5 of these Cyathia are here, at the tips of green stems. Below the Cyathia, there are 9 narrow white bract-like leaves; they are not petals.
Background; the petals of a purplish red dahlia.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 7d

Small jumping spider on Dragon plant. Evarcha sp. And I really should be dusting my house plants. Arachtober 2025, Day 17. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #VancouverIsland #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates

A small jumping spider on a long, dusty leaf of a dragon plant. The spider is brown, with a white band around the edge of his abdomen, and the front of his cephalothorax. The legs are banded with brown, grey, some black. He's keeping one side eye on me.
Background; wall, more leaves, green with red edges.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 8d

End of season bouquet. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/brig... #VancouverIsland #Bloomscrolling

Vase with a mixture of flowers; deep wine-red dahlias, pink cosmos, three small sunflowers, and tiny white alyssums and euphorbia, all with short stems, crammed in tightly.
In a small green vase on a white cloth on a wooden table. Background; more wood, dark shadows, burgundy carpet.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 8d

Walking on stilts. A Harvestman, also called "Daddy Long Legs" Arachtober 2025, Day 16. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Harvestmen #Opiliones #Invertebrates

A harvestman: it has 8 legs, but it's not a spider. It's one of the Opiliones, and doesn't make a web, or even produce silk. And it has no fangs or venom; it's a scavenger, not a predator.
The body is all one piece, cephalothorax and abdomen united in a boxy body without a waist. This one, in sunlight, is brown on top with a black patch, cream on the bottom half. It "flies" over an air plant, held up on its extremely long legs. The leg joints where they meet the body are black, so are the knees.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 9d

Web in three dimensions. It looks messy, but it does the job. Yellow house spider in her web; Arachtober 2025, Day 15. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates

A round-bellied, yellow and brown spider hangs belly-up in her web, with her rear towards us. The web silk goes every which way, filling the corner she has chosen for her trap.
From this viewpoint we can see the spinnerets at the tip of her abdomen, and the 8-sided circle where her legs come together. 3 pairs of legs hold the web above her; the 4th pair point in our direction.
Background; dark grey wall, pale grey post.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 10d

On the rocks. A leggy wolf spider hunting on a rock face, with sunlight throwing shadows, even of her hairs. Arachtober 2025, Day 14. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates

A black spider, leggy, with long, hairy legs. She's running on a vertical rock face; grey rocks with dirt in the cracks. The sunlight is strong, and casts shadows of all her legs; even the hairs on the third left legs are repeated on the rock.
She's black on black; the cephalothorax is smooth, the abdomen also hairy, or maybe a better word would be fuzzy; the hairs are shorter than the ones on her legs.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 11d

Out to lunch. Back at 2. Orb-weaver's web in the forest. The owner has taken her bag lunch off to eat in the shade of the trees. Arachtober 2025, Day 13. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates

A neat, circular, spider's web in full sunlight. Going from the centre, outwards; an empty circular hole, then a narrow band of web (6 spirals in 22 sections), then another open space, crossed only by the radial strands of silk, then the outer spirals (from 25 to 40 in each section). Here there are a few large holes, as if a bird had flown through the web.
All this anchored in surrounding bare twigs of forest shrubs.
There are a few carcasses of bugs left in the web, but no spider can be seen anywhere.
Background; sunny patches in shady forest, green on green.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 12d

Woodlouse spider on the hunt. A ground dweller, she makes no web, but prowls all night, looking for sowbugs. Arachtober 2025, Day 12. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #JumpingSpiders #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates

A good-sized spider, patrolling the floor inside a house. Each main part of her body comes in a different colour, plain, with no design. Her cepahlothorax (head and thorax), including the large fangs, is a deep wine-red. The abdomen is light greyish brown (others may have creamy yellow or grey abdomens). And the legs are a warm medium brown.
We know she's female because her palps (brown like the legs) are narrow; the males have "boxing-glove" palps.)
Looking closely, you may see the ridges circling the top of the abdomen, and the shape of the cephalothorax, with a raised section in front, and a flatter, round base.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 12d

They're not keeping it; they just like to hitchhike.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 12d

Not to humans. To insects, yes. They aren't aggressive to us larger beasts.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 13d

Zebra stripes. On a Zebra spider, of course. These spiders love my car. Arachtober 2025, Day 11. www.flickr.com/photos/wande... #Arachtober2025 #Arachnids #JumpingSpiders #Spiders #Arañas #Invertebrates

A black and white jumping spider, back to the camera, on a car door. The spider has three white stripes on each side of his abdomen, stripes on the legs, and a patch on the cephalothorax (head) that looks sort of like a cat's face with whiter ears. The spider's eyes on the top of the cephalothorax are black on black, and the others are visible only as blacker lumps on the front.
He's on a silvery-grey car, glittery, by the edge of the window, black.

Susannah 🍁 @wweeta.bsky.social · 14d

More mushrooms. In their usual spot, on the museum lawn. New blog post: wanderinweeta.blogspot.com/2025/10/two-... #VancouverIsland #Mushrooms #Fungi #NaturePhotography

Mica caps, Coprinellus micaceus. Bell-shaped caps, yellowish brown, with marked grooves radiating down to the margins. One large mushroom is damaged, with a chunk gone, the broken edge frayed.
They're in a sparse lawn, around the roots of an evergreen tree.