I was a little surprised yesterday when a small spider crossed my path when I was walking on the boardwalk at my local marsh. Sure, temperatures had warmed up and it was over 50 degrees outside (10 degrees C), but I didn’t think there were any spiders around at this time of the year. This is definitely my first spider of 2014.
Expecting to photograph birds, not bugs (yes, I know a spider technically is an arachnid, not a bug), I had equipped my camera with a telephoto lens, not a macro lens, and wasn’t even carrying my macro lens. The spider was moving too, so I used what I had and shot these photos at 300mm and cropped them.
You can probably tell that the boardwalk at the marsh is made of a synthetic material and not real wood, which means that I am not at risk of getting splinters when I kneel on it as I often do. This spider, whose species I cannot identify, was pretty small. The visible head of a screw used to hold in place the planks of boardwalk help to give you an idea of the relative size of the spider. Eagle-eyed readers may notice that the third photo is the same image as the first one, but cropped less severely.
In a few short months, I hope to see (and photograph) a whole lot more spiders in even greater detail, but the first one of the year is always special.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Congrats on the first spider!
Congrats indeed. I believe its a fisher spider.
Thanks, Victor, in helping me to identify the spider. I was thinking that it looked like a fishing spider, but all of the others that I have seen have been a lot bigger in size.
I wonder what they find to eat at this time of year. There are a few insects about but it must be slim pickings.
That guy would be a frozen solid in about 30 seconds in my neighborhood. Nature must be moving toward Spring in yours.
We may be moving toward spring, Sue, but it has been down in the teens the last few nights, so I am not sure how the spider is doing. I didn’t expect to see any insects for another month or so.