Moonset At Dawn

Amazingly the sky seemed clear for this morning’s moonset, but as the moon descended tiny grey clouds appeared. These made sooty smudges on the face of the moon. They didn’t clear until the moon was in the trees. A few minutes more and the sky would have lightened and the landscape would have been revealed, but alas you can’t determine the rising of the sun to suit your photo.
My other moonset shots.


Vagrant Spider   Today I found a large male vagrant spider in my laundry tub. It’s body length was 17mm and it had a leg span of 50mm. (Non-arachnophobes might like to see it in the extra shot). There are several endemic species of this spider, but few have been described. An interesting feature is the male’s pedipalps, which look like it is holding a shiny orange berry. Also I noted that they appear to have white claws- see the shot of it inspecting my index finger. I was delighted to find this spider. Since the hunting wasps moved in a few years ago there have been very few about.