One of my favourite parts of the Fall season is catching a glimpse of a garden spider in my backyard. They make the most beautiful big webs, and just sit there with what seems to be pregnant bodies. I don't know if their bodies actually swell in the fall, but that is the way it seems.
I love that in the above photo you can't even see the web, it is so fine. I know it is there not only because the spider must be clinging to something, but because in the bottom right you can see a tiny fruit fly caught in the web. It must have been too small to bother with. Certainly not a meal, and evidently, not even big enough for a snack.
And here, a photo with my finger for scale. She is a big beauty.
I have gone back to the spot where I found her every day since I took this photo, but I have not had the pleasure of her company again.
I recall one Fall at our home in Gatineau having the chance to see tiny spiders spill out of a spider's egg sack on our patio table umbrella. They scurried to the edge, let loose a thread of silk, then drifted off in the air. Just as described in Charlotte's Web. It was magical.
I have not spotted any egg sacks in my backyard in Lethbridge yet, but I will keep an eye out.
To add on to your talk of spiders, Bonnie seems to be wanting to do a post about stink bugs and so she has been studying them, watching their shapes, even telling me that they are not natural to BC but were just introduced about 1990, though I am sure the stink bugs don't know about that.
ReplyDeleteWe had banana spiders outside our home in Gainesville. Your post made me think of them. Beautiful creatures.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I must go out and find a picture of a banana spider. For most people, outside their house is the place they mos enjoy finding a spider. :-)
DeleteThey are beautiful Bonnie. So glad to have learned about them. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-ne-banana-spiders-20181008-story.html
Deleteit must be late.... the image of the baby spiders floating away makes me want to cry rather than cringe! :-)
ReplyDeleteYou're right Rebecca. Witnessing that event was worthy of tears. Not only because of how much I love Charlotte, but because I got to observe a tiny miracle. Moments like that feel sacred to me.
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