Spider Heaven

A few days ago I spent a morning in the company of spiders and fisherpersons at Bob Heirman Wildlife Preserve. It sits on the Snohomish River and is close-ish to Monroe. There is one main trail that runs through a grassy meadow, along the river bluff, and (after some obstacles in the form of fallen logs) through a forest of alder and cottonwood to a wide gravel river bank.

First the spiders. I like this shot I got of a web; I would have liked to get closer but that was as close as I could feasibly wiggle my tripod. The next lens I purchase will probably be a macro lens with a greater focal length (i.e. I can get equal magnification at greater distance).

This tree was completely draped in spider webs, which made it look strange/interesting:

Beyond that, it was a very pretty autumn morning, with a thick fog giving way to warm sunshine. There were a lot of dead fish lying around the riverbank in various stages of decay. I'm not sure why this is; I couldn't find anything online that would suggest a cause. This actually caused some stomach unpleasantness on my part. But other than that, I very much enjoyed the park.

Combinations of sunshine and fog always make for interesting scenery. I stood around for what must have been 45 minutes waiting for the fog to look like this:

Until next time! I'm going to try to seek out some vine maples next.