Winter Birthday Picnic

Yesterday was a tremendous day.  It was Lois's birthday so we decided to have a winter picnic.  We had a varied meal with shrimp cocktail, cheese and crackers, tuna roll ups, split pea and ham soup, fruit salad, and a birthday cookie!

We snowshoed into our target site when Jamey spotted a winter-active spider for the second time this winter.  I decided to research whether this is possible.  I found one PDF webpage that studied spiders in Canada: http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v12_n3/arac_12_3_0249.pdf .  They discovered that there are 54 species of winter-active spiders.  From what I can tell, the spider we saw is either a ground spider Gnaphosa, or a wolf spider Lycosidae.  

Creek along the road....

There is a raccoon in that tree!

Jamey leading the way...

Birthday girl....

Picnic spot...

 

 

After the great picnic, we snowshoed out by moon light.  It was awesome!