Patiently waiting for spring!

 

 

A cold, sunny afternoon in City Park (March 08) at the water park

A giant spider crouches in wait for the BMX bike rider to stumble within it's reach.

Selenops Spp (Selenopid Crab Spider) busily warming its self on a rock. This particular spider's diameter in real life is larger than a two dollar coin (including outstretched legs) and is one of the larger species of hunting spiders that can be found in the Pacific Northwest. The body of this spider is generally yellowish brown with grayish to brownish mottling. If you can get close enough to it's head, you might notice 6 of the 8 eyes are in a row across the front of its cephalothorax with the remaining two on sides.

A work of digital art - March 08, 2011.

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While visiting Point Roberts, I stopped into Lighthouse Marine Park to see if I could spot any Orca Pods passing by close to shore, as Point Roberts is a well known viewpoint to see whales all year round. I was a bit disappointed not to see anything out in the water, but as I walked along the beach a movement caught my eye. A Selenopid Crab Spider moving to a flat beach rock to warm himself. This particular spider's diameter is larger than a two dollar coin including outstretched legs - one of the larger species of hunting spiders that can be found in the Pacific Northwest.

The body of this spider is generally yellowish brown with grayish to brownish mottling. If you can get close enough to it's head, you might notice 6 of the 8 eyes are in a row across the front of its cephalothorax with the remaining two on sides.

Selenops Spp - Selenopid Crab Spider - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts, Whatcom County, USA - April 26, 2009.

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Point Roberts is an unincorporated community in Whatcom County, Washington, United States. Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 98281; the ZCTA for ZIP code 98281 had a population of 1,308 at the 2000 census.

A geopolitical oddity, it is a practical exclave of the United States, located on the southernmost tip of the Tsawwassen Peninsula, south of Delta, British Columbia, Canada. Point Roberts can be reached from the rest of the United States only by traveling through Canada or crossing Boundary Bay. Other exclaves of this type include the U.S. state of Alaska; and parts of Minnesota such as the Northwest Angle and Elm Point, Minnesota.

The first Europeans to see Point Roberts were members of the 1791 expedition of Francisco de Eliza. The maps produced as a result of Eliza's explorations depicted Point Roberts as "Isla de Cepeda" or "Isla de Zepeda" In 1792 the British expedition of George Vancouver and the Spanish expedition of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano encountered one another near Point Roberts. In the morning of June 13, 1792, the two ships under Galiano sailed into Boundary Bay and verified that Point Roberts was not an island, which was thus renamed Punta Cepeda. They then sailed around Point Roberts and immediately encountered the HMS Chatham, the second ship of Vancouver's expedition. The two parties made contact and soon agreed to share information and work together in mapping the Strait of Georgia.[5] Point Roberts acquired its present name from George Vancouver, who named it after his friend Henry Roberts, who had originally been given command of the expedition. Point Roberts assumed its present political status in 1846, when the Oregon Treaty extended the 49th parallel as the boundary between American and British territory from the Rocky Mountains to Georgia Strait.

After years of joint occupation of the disputed area between the Columbia River and Russian America known as the Oregon Country to the Americans, and as the Columbia District to the British, American expansionists like U.S. Senator Edward A. Hannegan of Indiana urged US President James K. Polk to annex the entire Oregon Country up to latitude 54°40'N, as the Democrats had been elected on the slogan "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight".

While his government asserted that the title of America to the entire territory was unquestionable, Polk and his secretary, James Buchanan made an offer of a boundary at 49 degrees with the line straight across Vancouver Island, with no commercial privilege to be granted to the British south of the line, with the exception of free ports on Vancouver Island. This offer was rejected by the British and withdrawn by the US shortly thereafter.

On April 18, 1846, notice was forwarded to London that the US Congress had adopted a joint resolution abrogating the Treaty of 1818 which provided for joint occupancy.

The British emissary, Richard Packenham, had previously been advised that the last concession which could be expected of America was in bending the boundary at the 49th parallel around the lower end of Vancouver Island. Fort Victoria was viewed as the future center for settlements on the island. It was deemed necessary around this point in time to give up territory on the Lower Mainland to keep Vancouver Island part of British North America.

Lord Aberdeen, British Foreign Secretary, proposed a treaty making the 49th parallel the boundary to the sea, giving Great Britain the whole of Vancouver Island. The Treaty of Oregon was concluded on June 15, 1846.

The acceptance of the 49th parallel as the international boundary was concluded without precise knowledge of the effects it would have. Later, as the Boundary Commission was surveying the line, the British government realized that the peninsula of Point Roberts would be an isolated part of the United States. The British Foreign Office instructed Captain James Prevost, the British Boundary Commissioner, to inform his American counterpart of the situation and request that Point Roberts be left to Britain, because of the great inconvenience it would be to the United States. If the American Boundary Commission was reluctant, Prevost was instructed to offer "some equivalent compensation by a slight alteration of the Line of Boundary on the Mainland". It is not known how the American commissioner responded, but Point Roberts remained part of the United States.

In 1949, there was talk about Point Roberts seceding from the USA and joining Canada. By 1973 there were tensions between the Americans and Canadian residents of Point Roberts. The Americans had threatened to cut off the Canadians' water supply, and hung up signs saying "Canadians Go Home."