Berry heaven

The foraging year starts for me with wild garlic and sea beet, moves on to elderflowers and gooseberries which segue into the raspberry season. (I know that soft fruit are cultivated crops but in my wilderness garden picking them is a challenge that involves contending with nettles and brambles.)
 Before the raspberries are over the lure of the  whinberry (bilberry) season takes hold and I'm anxious to get up to inspect the abandoned slate quarries  where, most years, they can be found in abundance. Sure enough they were ripe and plentiful. Fingers, mouths and knees rapidly  empurpled as the bowls filled with juicy treasure.

I was pleased to capture this shot of a tiny four-eyed jumping spider perched upon a single berry, just a few millimetres in length. Exactly which one it is I'm afraid I cannot say - there are over 6000 species of jumping spiders (Salticidae).


Update - it's a zebra spider, predatory and said to hunt like a cat.

Extra shots show the quarry, knee-deep in whin bushes, and some of the spoils.