Showing posts with label spiders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spiders. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Odds and ends from today

I covered a lot of ground today.
Here's a Carolina garden spider, sometimes called a writing spider because of the zigzag patterns she weaves in her orb web to attract insects. We saw her at Botany Bay WMA.

We are seeing some effects from being on the far edges of tropical storm Fay. The waves at Edisto Beach are normally very easy. The camera doesn't show it very well, but these were very strong, probably ten feet high.

At the Grove Plantation, headquarters for the famous ACE Basin reserve, we were lucky enough to glimpse a wood nymph butterfly. He was well inside a small shrub and very hard to get a good shot at. They are not common and it was the first time I'd ever seen one.

We got a laugh out of this sign we saw. This small building had been little rural gas station with beer and goodness knows what else offered. It closed when the owner died and stood idle for months. This is what is going to open there now.

And today's squirrel Olympics features the Peanut Hang. This competitor will have several points deducted for letting his legs come apart and not keeping his toes pointed.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Golden orb weaver

You'll have to click all these pictures larger to see what's going on. A beautiful golden orb weaver spider has built a huge web very near the main door to our house. You really can't go in the normal way, but have to go around her.
The interesting thing is that she has spun a lovely perfect orb as they usually do. But then she has put about a foot deep very messy web on either side of her orb, as if to protect the orb itself.



She's really a lovely spider, if spiders are your thing. They are better than roaches, right! The hapless little guy at the top is one of the several husbands that have been hanging around. I wonder if he knows he'll be eaten as soon as he has done his duty?


These were all taken a few days ago. She is much larger and thicker in the body now--full of baby spiders, I suppose. From toe to toe, she measures about four inches. I'll keep you posted on what happens.