This is a garden spider, known as an ORB spider. It eats all the bad bugs in the garden. One day Tovi Joi and I were picking Oma's strawberries and I almost walked through this spider web.The bright orange back was reflected in the sun and stopped me just in time!!
You have to know me to know how bizarre this is that I have been watching this spider for several weeks. I detest spiders!! I have an inborn FEAR of spiders. I run and carry on when I see one or if one is on me LOOK OUT.
But for some reason this one caught my eye. So the kids and I watched her every day. She lives under a dead plant stalk and I had two boys weeding for me. I told them they couldn't touch the dead plant and they just weeded around it.
We have found her 'wrapping' up her meals in her web as well as spinning new parts to her web.
Our sprinkler system seems to take out her web every morning. Every afternoon her web is back in all its glory.
I have really been focusing on nature more with my new camera. I have never seen a spider this color before---usually they are brown or yellow but this glows copper colored in the sun.
I also started thinking about how many we don't see in the depths of the bushes/flowers every day.
Maybe you have one that you can show your children/grandchildren and teach them about how they live and eat pests etc. I found that as I did that I was able to make some kind of peace with it. I have become very protective of it and go out every day to make sure it is still alive and well.
Stranger things have happened....................................................
3 comments:
I have a natural fear of spiders as well. My mother was just telling me at the weekend about a family in Fredericton that found a dead humming bird all wrapped up in a spider's web in the eaves of their veranda. Poor wee thing.
Marie
http://journals.aol.co.uk/mariealicejoan/MariesMuses/
Great picture of the spider. You will enjoy taking pictures of all sorts of things in your backyard. It's amazing how much you can find and it's a great place to practise taking macro's
Hugs Karen
Cute spider. Diligent for sure! I'm not crazy about spiders either. Although I have been known to catch them in baby food jars so we can see them up close and personal without having to actually handle them. And then I put them on ice in my freezer next to the ice cream! :D
Check this link for a truely amazing spider web. It's beautiful and yet kind of creepy.
http://www.texasento.net/Social_Spider.htm
:)
Kimberly
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