Funnel Weaver Spider Hololena sp. Araneae: Agelenidae

    As I rode my bike along Bayshore Bikeway, examining the progress of the coastal restoration in the nature preserve that lies along the southern edge of Silver Strand between Imperial Beach and Coronado, I happened across the web of what I believe is a funnel weaver spider (Hololena sp. Araneae: Agelenidae).  It was seated in a small hole in the side of a berm, its web spun out horizontally, waiting for lunch to be served.  I don’t have a problem with spiders; I just don’t like to be near them.  I also don’t have a macro lens; I just have a telephoto.  Convenient for me isn’t it?

Coastal Restoration & Dredging Begins

    There has been coastal restoration in the form of dredging going on for 5 months and just the other day the levees that separated San Diego Bay proper from the South Bay Biological Study Area were breached by the restoration team.  This means if you walk or ride along Bayshore Bikeway at the north end of 7^th St. in Imperial Beach, all the water in the nature preserve will ebb and flow with the tides from fresh Pacific Ocean water!  I think it will probably turn the intersection of Imperial Beach and Silver Strand into a bird watching Mecca.

Spider Waiting For Lunch

    It was a bright, cloudless day but the arachnid was in a shaded burrow so I used the on-camera flash to light the spider up.  I had no idea that a spider’s eyes reflect light like cat eyes do but, they do.  All other members of a coastal wetland sanctuary food chain benefit from being in the sanctuary, not just the birds and not just the wetlands.

Funnel Weaver Spider

    That’s why, in a post where I’m talking about ocean water and birds there are spider pictures; they’re all connected and it was while walking around the preserve I found this spider, which lead to the train of thought that lead to the theme and tone of this post.  Deep isn’t it?

Mouseover To See High & Low Tide before Restoration

    Move your mouse over the photo above to see the difference between high & low tide in the preserve before the restoration began.  If you want to see the amazing work that’s been done in the 5 months since the photos above were taken, you’ll just have to get on your bike, ride Bayshore Bikeway towards Imperial Beach and see for yourself. That blue stripe in the background is the Coronado Bridge which you can bike to using the trail.  Along the way you’ll pass the nature preserve, Silver Strand State Beach and Hotel Del Coronado.  See? If you are a lover of nature, biking, skating, running, the beach, hotels, Coronado or Imperial Beach, this outing has something for you.  Don’t forget to bring your camera so you can include photos when you blog about your fun time.  Cheers!

Film Grain Makes The Spider Purr

The first thing that happened was a spider, and it happened on film instead of a digital sensor.  Shut up!  All of you!  The grain of this photo has grit and depth.  The sacrificed detail that digital promises is cast aside by the the infinite mass that film provides.

The grain from the spider above reminded me of a photograph I took back in 1972, almost two full years before I was born.

The thing was that despite being within a few feet of the chain link fence that kept a Tyrannosaurus Rex out of the populated areas of South Bay, California, my boldly colored friend here cared ONLY about his iPhone.

Really?  In 1972 after purchasing a hat with colors like this and personally selecting bracelets for BOTH wrists, the only thing of interest is what you can find on your iPhone?

After such a realization as that, you can understand I would almost miss what happened after that.  A meal on the GFG that resulted in a rare photo-op of a food and a continent.

I swear the chicken sandwich below is real.

Australia Was Consumed In California

        The spicy chicken sandwich is the best sandwich and use of chicken ever developed by humans on this planet. It was so random that I cooked an Australian chicken sandwich on my Foreman Grill, but I would have cooked this criminal populated continent in the oven too.

The Green Lynx Spider

        Of the many things that happened while I was down there, eating was one of them.  I bring this up because I am assuming that it was something I ate while down in the rabbit hole that shrank me down to the size of an ambush spider’s prey.  The abundance of honey bees, distracted this spider just long enough for me to slide down the stem of the flower and run into the underbrush of the nearby shrubbery and flower ecosystem .

Full Spectrum Lizard

        Due to my small size, I cannot judge distance for this story at all so it it should suffice to say that to open space of coarse white cement may have been a bike path or a jumbo-jet runway, and this lizard was right in the middle of it.  My physical being was so small that the pebbles next to the lizard seemed to be the size of automobiles to me.

The Thirsty Worm Gets The Burn

        I was able to hide behind the carcass  of this earthworm, which for some reason, was not in the earth because it was dead, on top of the earth.  This irony was lost on me as I sought cover behind it, while waiting for the giant chameleon death lizard to lumber away from my present location.

I managed to make my way to a cut   lumber pile that was teeming with flight capable life forms.

This fly, with a bright iridescent racing green skin gave me a ride to a witch doctor that said she would make me regular size.

I suppose that’s all I ever wanted.