Most of the bees seem attracted to the lavender right now but this one spent considerable time enjoying some solitude on this flower.

Having a wide variety of plants for bees to accesses during the season is important in helping all the Honeybee, Bumblebee species as well as other pollinators. Having a diverse garden has the added benefit of becoming a lively living ecosystem that can be fascinating to watch. One thing to consider when planting to encourage bees is thinking about staggering different plants that bloom at different times. For example, I often leave some dandelions out in early spring when some pollinators are first emerging. Often it is one of the only sources of food for these early garden guests and leaving them something to accesses can be beneficial. Dandelions have a very nice flower and once someones idea of them as just a weed is overcome, a nice early addition to the garden.

Some other plants that seem very popular in my garden on Vancouver Island are:

• Common lilacs (which are also early to bloom)
• lavender,
• Globe Thistle,
• California lilacs
• Daisies

to name just a few.

It has been interesting and encouraging to see views on bees change over the years. As a kid I would often remember people killing bees as pests out of fear of being stung. At that same time I remember observing bumblebees in the garden and being fascinated at how gentle they were.  I hope peoples appreciation for other insects and arachnids also develops over time.  So many of these tiny creatures benefit us as a species as well as being fascinating subjects to observe.

I had been noticing this jumping spider hunting near some cellar spiders. I have witnessed both these spiders take down other spiders in the past. Having witnessed these cellar spider VS jumping spider interactions before, they always had seemed to result in a stalemate. I came back later to find the jumping spider being wrapped up in the cellar spiders web. Whatever conflict had happened now seemed long finished and the cellar spider had its next meal. However, these jumping spiders are resilient, and this one was not about to let that happen.

After some time I noticed the jumping spiders leg start moving. It is hard to say if the wrapped arachnid had taken a bite or not but it seemed to suddenly spring to life. After it cut through the web it quickly escaped the situation. The jumping spider left the area soon after seemingly none the worse for the encounter although decided against round two.

Jumping Spiders and Cellar Spiders both Accomplished Spider Hunters

I was a little frustrated having missed the jumping spiders attack. I have witness jumping spiders pulling apart other spiders webs to get at them. They are obviously extremely formidable spiders in the arachnid world for other spiders to contend with. Likewise the delicate looking cellar spider is often underestimated but is a superbly established spider hunter itself. These I have witnessed  capturing such large prey such as the Giant House Spider Eratigena atrica. Cellar Spiders use their long legs to throw large amounts of webbing over their opponents subduing the often stronger more powerful adversary.  They then move in close to the leg or other area  to inflict a bite and inject venom. Cellar Spiders are often considered a great benefit to people as although they consume a large amount of prey, they are completely docile to people.

It was a lucky and amazing experience to witness these two top arachnid predators interacting like this, hopefully there will be more interactions to witness in the future.

A common black ant was aggressively attacking a small bundle of baby garden spiders.
This occurred on my deck; the spider’s web seemed to act as an effective shield to the would-be attacker. Several baby spiders did appear dead; although I did not see the ant actively kill them. The ant would return many times trying to pull the web apart with its mandibles.

Black ants are omnivorous and will eat spiders and small insects, although with the level of determination this one had, I was wondering if there was some active instinct to kill a future predator, such as lions and hyenas attacking each other’s young. Either way I thought it was an interesting encounter being I generally notice black ants to be extremely passive and non aggressive.

Low tide at Miracle Beach on Vancouver Island British Columbia gives the chance to see a lot of cool critters that call the local ocean their home. Small spider crabs sometimes known as kelp crabs seemed particularity fascinated with my camera. Several of them attempted to reach my camera and upon doing so would extend a leg out to touch the lens. I am not sure what brought about this strange behavior but it was definitely interesting.

Ever see those little spider nests in the garden early in the summer? I found one on a deck chair and decided to do some close up shots of the little spiders to see what their world is like.

I found this bumble bee exhausted and having a hard time moving, however after offering her some sugar water the bee happily lapped it up and began looking more energetic. It then decided to climb aboard my phone which was sitting a few feet away and rest for a while longer. Finally, after what appears to be a good bee poop on my phone to thank me it flew away apparently rejuvenated.

Something to note that I found in my research for helping exhausted bees such as this one is that it is important to use a mix of sugar and water and NOT honey like you would find in your kitchen. That honey is imported and apparently  not healthy for them to consume.

This encounter of two garden spiders happened as I left my house. I grabbed my camera and filmed the two spiders in what appeared to be courtship.
These spiders are docile and harmless to people. I like to see them in my garden as they take out a lot of the flying insects such as misquotes and wasps.
It is fairly interesting to see the male attempt to wrap the legs of the much larger and aggressive female with its web. Ultimately the female was not interested and the male paid the price.
This is a fairly common scenario with this Cross Orb Weaver; apparently love really does hurt when you are a male garden spider.