Bog Bounty II

Spiders!

The previous post was about the traditional fall Pine Barrens product, cranberries. New Jersey is the third largest US producer of this Thanksgiving staple and popular juice flavoring.

I was unable to find any stats on spider production.

But there were plenty. And like the berries, they float too.

The miracle of walking on water ...

... or the physics of surface tension?

Note the spiders on spiders (click to bigafy). They were climbing over everything, even each other.

Miracle or physics (and I'm going with physics), with the bog flooded they had to go somewhere. And where was to shore. And they kept coming and coming and coming ...

Some found a home in communal webs.

Some tried to find a home on me!

It was a magical experience, although not everyone saw it that way. Some found it rather creepy. Some didn't notice at all (amazing!).

There were literally thousands and thousands of these creatures streaming across the bog and onto the shore, climbing over everything in their path. They were on my camera, my tripod (spinning webs!), and on me. And they were on everybody else.

A natural phenomena I'm glad I was there to experience. Very cool. Very cool indeed.