Webs

It is the time of year when migrating birds start showing up, either at the end point of their journeys or just passing through to parts further north. Not coincidently, it is the time of year we visit local birding 'hot spots'. We visited one such spot yesterday, the now inappropriately named Bear Swamp at Red Lion Preserve.

And while we saw neither bear nor lion, we did see (and hear) some nice birds, although not as many as we had hoped. Still a bit early it seems.

What we did see was spider webs.

Lots of spider webs.

We awoke to a very foggy morning, and knowing we'd be in the woods I took my iPhone as my only camera, reasoning shooting small, quick moving birds in the tree top would be a frustrating endeavor. Alas, I out thought myself as while the iPhone is a capable camera, I was wishing for a more versatile device.

This is the creation of the Bowl and Dolly Spider, Frontinella pyramitela, a critter we have in our yard. To me they look like the dishes of radio telescopes.

But it was these domes that really had us wondering what was going on. Despite having visited this trail on numerous occasions over the years, as well as other similar locations, we'd never noticed them before.

The work of the Filmy Dome Spider, Neriene radiata, one of which can be seen just under the apex of the dome in the image above. These webs were seemingly everywhere throughout the woods.

This is where I really could have used a camera with more manual controls.  Look closely and you can see strands of spider web entangling the understory vegetation.

There were plenty of the more traditional, Halloween style webs as well. Our friend Sandra, who joined us for this outing (and who maintained proper social distancing throughout) led our walk down the trail, waving her arm to knock away the spanning strands.

🕸  🕷  🕸  🕷  🕸

The Bowl and Dolly Spider is active from spring until late summer, as is the Filmy Dome Spider. The  latter is common in the forests of the eastern US, while the former is common in peat bogs. Yet it takes the right conditions, a wet foggy windless morning in this case, for them to make their presence known. And a significant presence it was.

Good thing I'm not afraid of spiders.