Along came ... a whole bunch of spiderlings!

Today was my weekly walk with my naturalist friends.  It was a  drizzly day so only about a half-dozen of us braved the weather.  But, what a morning we had!  Loads of birds, including my first ever American Woodcock (alas, I was carrying a macro lens, so no photo), and a surprising number of spiders and insects.

When I first spotted these, I thought I was seeing some sort of insect eggs...until I realized some of them were moving!  A much closer look showed the smallest baby spiders imaginable, all staying close together and all looking ...extremely yellow.  The other entomology enthusiast in the group and I stayed behind watching and photographing - reminding me of a certain someone who I love shooting with, someone I know would have thoroughly enjoyed the morning if only she weren't off seeing fabulous things in France.  

I believe these are some sort of orb weaver babies.  There was no sign of the mother, which is typical.  She would have stood guard over the web "nursery" until all the spiderlings hatched and started moving.  At that point, she most likely went off somewhere and died.  Certain species of spiders are actually amazingly brave and diligent mothers, risking their own lives to protect their brood.  I will have to do some additional research and see if I can get an accurate ID on these little guys.

Even for you arachnaphobes, this may not be too chilling of a photo since you can clearly see how tiny they are next to the teeny droplets of water on the plant.  By the way, there were at least 100 spiderlings spread out over the plant.  If you'd like to see the larger cluster of babies, they are in Extra.

My morning started with something much bigger, unfortunately.  Just as I was preparing to leave for my drive up to meet the group, I saw a rather large bear making his way from our woods towards our patio.  I yelled for Hubs and zipped out to the deck with air horn which I blasted at the bear.  He did a sudden about-face and took off for the woods.  Hubs showed up just in time to fire off a few rounds with the paint-ball gun. I should add that the only things that were hit were a large number of trees, but the noise was enough to encourage the bear to disappear over the ridge.  He was a big one.  Hope he moves along.  I'll be extra watchful when I'm in the garden for the next few days.

Nothing yet from the surgeon, which I am taking as good news.  If I don't hear anything by end of the day, I'll send over a gentle email reminder tomorrow morning.

Really looking forward to heading to Portland next week to see Mom and Dad.  Unfortunately, the schedule for this trip isn't going to permit time for a blipmeet, but next time!

xo
Debbi