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Wednesday 9 October 2013

Webby Wednesday

There I was yesterday morning, both marvelling at and cursing the 11 webs that had appeared on the outside of my large living room window just two days after cleaning it, when suddenly the sun broke through the light mist, lighting up webs galore amongst my Bronze Fennel, Verbena bonariensis and other plants. I just had to grab my camera and go outside and try to capture some of this.

I was ducking under silks galore running from one plant to another, and whilst it hadn't appeared to be particularly damp or dewy, it was amazing how many webs were suddenly visible - and even more amazing was that through my macro lens I could actually see moisture falling in the mist!

This first shot shows a pumpkin ripening on my living room windowsill. A bit Halloweeny - just a shame about the sofa in the background but I'm not going to rearrange my living room just for one shot! 







Here hidden in amongst the rose petals you can just see a little spider. I can't tell what it is so don't know if it is responsible for the web here.


No webs here but had to try to capture the rose with some dew on it. The little blob at the bottom is exuviae from an aphid - that is, the shed exoskeleton after a moult. 


Many of the orb webs here with a v-shaped missing section are built by a species known as the Missing Sector Orb Weaver (Zygiella x-notata), many of whom live around human habitation and build their webs around windows.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygiella_x-notata

This will be my last post this month as I'm away soon and no time for any more blogging. Potential burglars forget it because as usual, there will be housesitters here looking after the menagerie! 


10 comments:

  1. Great web shots Mandy! You were in webby heaven and with dew as well. Wonderful!

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    1. Thanks very much Kim! I can never get over how many webs there are when they show up in the dew. I think all the spiders tell others to come here cos it's a spider friendly place to live. :-)

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  2. Good webby stuff Mmm. The info on the Missing Sector Orb Weaver will have me looking at webs tomorrow. I can't bring myself to believe that you so seldom get dewy webs. If we didn't enjoy it here we'd be planning a move staright away.

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    1. It's just not damp enough yet and it's been unseasonally warm, especially at night, but the temps are dropping. I'm still watering veg and although my lawn has greened up a lot there are still brown patches. Barely any autumn colour yet, just the same jaded colour and leaf dropping due to dry soil that was happening in August. There is more than one benefit to a damp climate (on the other hand it's pretty cool to still have tomatoes ripening and growing in October)! Hope you find some Zygiella x-notatas :-) and thank you, Nick!

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  3. Absolutely Wonderful and your images are excellent. I would have been running about too trying to get every possible angle :-) Dewy webs are not something I'm likely to see around my house so I'm envious!

    I will miss your posts. Safe travels!

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    1. Thanks very much Marianne! I don't see this sight often enough so little practice with how best to shoot them but it is great fun to try, and it's just a magical sight anyway, forgetting about the camera for a moment. No dew up in Flagstaff? Or just frosty now?!

      Hopefully I'll come back with loads of pictures but that rather depends on weather as to what we do. My pictures may be of shopping malls ;-)

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  4. ohhh those are wonderful - love the moody atmosphere to ... them just perfect for webby shots. Have a great time away from the blog :)

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    1. Thanks very much Rosie! I'm back now but it's been great having a break from the internet and most social media. :-)

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