Am I late for Halloween?

First, let me just say that this photo has NO edits other than a crop.  Yep, this marbled orb weaver spider was the brightest shade of orange you could imagine, like a small pumpkin with 8 fuzzy legs.  I was out having a walk in the woods and had squatted down to pick up some small pin acorns when I saw a bit of orange motion in my periphery.  I was pretty amazed when this creature crawled out from a pile of leaves and made his way across the trail.  And also kind of glad no one came along as I was crouched down with my camera at spider-eye-level (which involved me being on knees and elbow with bum in the air...)  First spider of this type I've ever seen but I was able to ID it pretty quickly once I got home in front of a computer - not really anything else that looks like this. 

Anyway, an orange spider definitely trumped my second choice/s of the day which would have been a vulture.  There were at least 25 vultures both Black and Turkey) hanging out on the Lane today - perched on trees and roof-tops and fighting over what appeared to be a squirrel carcass on the lawn.  I was very happy with some of the shots, thanks to my new 300 lens!  

I posted one additional shot of the orb weaver HERE, crawling over some acorns  Also three vulture shots...
Surprisingly attractive young turkey vulture with ...bones
Typical homely adult turkey vulture, and
Black vulture doing best impression of a wren

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you aren't totally icked-out by seeing a spider...but how could I resist it, really?

Happy Hump Day, people.

Debbi