Poor Luna, she tries so hard to be good.
Here she is, assiduously trying not to chase . . .
Heckle, who is only a few feet from her, standing on the edge of the front patio and waiting for her to leave so that he can steal her kibble.
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This is the female. We’ve got a number of pairs setting up house about our place.
I thought this was a nice shot of one of our chickens.
She’s a Golden Campine, which is a rare breed that probably origninated in Roman times but is more recently traced to the Campine (kamPEEN) region of Belgium.
The colours are really striking! She does look like gold especially around the back end and tail area.
That that is a gorgeous shot of Luna! 🙂
A marbled orb weaver
Cool. I really like Orb Weavers.
I remember some really great ones I saw one Summer in Alaska.
You’re getting wicked good with those closeups. I love the hairs on his legs.
It really helps when the spider is building the web right at face level (and you don’t walk into it).
Usually the spiders scurry off when I try to take close-ups but either orb weavers aren’t shy or this one was so intent on building the web he didn’t care that I put the camera within a couple of inches.
Andi, first, it is proper to refer to all spiders as “she” (Arachne was a woman. And second, I’m pretty sure your Marbled Orb Weaver is a girl. Males are smaller, sometimes ridiculously so, and have longer thoraxes and narrower abdomens.
to have given you yet another nit to pick. 😛
I’ll only take offense if you start nitting me intentionally. It’s not nice to poke the obsessively inclined.;)
Btw, Orb Weavers are also known as “writing spiders” for the zig-zag patterns in the center of their webs.
It doesn’t appear that I need to do it intentionally — I clearly have a natural talent.
There’s another orb weaver of some other type on the front porch but she won’t move to where I can get a decent picture.
Just sneaking in to say hello keres and Andi.
Hi FM.
It’s a fine blustery morning here in OZ. How is it with you?
It’s going fine keres. I’ve just getting used to again having two screens up for the computer. It’s kind of cool. 🙂
Why that configuration?
I have my laptop and then a 17″ screen by it. I’m using XP so I can have a couple of things going at one.
Right now I’m looking for a picture I took of a spider, but I’m still in the cafe and your diary without having to jump back and forth.
Aah. Cool.
Face level you say … good thing you’re not asleep on these morning walks …
Gorgeous markings on the body.
How big is this spider?
and it’s really hard to get spider webs off of glasses.
It was a bit under 2 cm.
Oh PLEASE give some warning when you are going to put up those things. Manny is not the only sane human around here!
But it was so purty!
And watching them build webs is so fascinating. This guy was really fast.
Size and distance has everything to do with how well I can deal with those multi-legged things, even in pictures. Suffice it to say that I had bad dealings with a couple during childhood that left me with a really awful phobia. Though I know how to cure phobias, this is one that I do not want to get rid of.
On the other hand, I pick up snakes in the wild. . . who said people were consistent?
Spider pictures are fine with me, but let’s avoid bats. Especially close ups of the evil things.
I guess now would not be a good time to mention that bats are the most numerous mammal on the planet.
One of the most spectacular sights I’ve ever seen is a half-million bats exiting Carlsbad Caverns at sunset. I also remember watching them in the evening, catching the flies that hung around my horses – even flying right between the horses legs with not so much as a twitch of horse hide.
I saw those bats too, when I was a kid on a cross country trip with my family. It was amazing to see. When I lived on Catoctin Mountain in Maryland I would sometimes sit on the deck in the evening and watch them patrol the hole in the forest around our house. Round and round they’de fly, munching on mosquitos and June bugs. Really fascinating. Or at another house that we rented that had a pool, watching them dive in and skim along the surface of the water with their tongues lapping up a drink. Cool to see.
Perhaps since dinosaur days.
Especially close ups of the evil things.
They’re not evil, they’re CUTE.
If you meet them inside, they are not at their best. The right angles of interior spaces create corner reflectors that jam their sonar. It is quite . . . um . . . blinding, and it makes them very upset.
I have it on good authority that he has very gently caught and released at least one bat that got trapped inside a house.
Sometimes we have to do things we’d rather not. Killing spiders on request for nearly twenty years, just to name one. Removing a trapped bat from terrified neighbor’s house for another.
And the quantity of bats in the world doesn’t shake my conviction. I am willing to stand against the millions of nasty flying mammals. Well, not stand exactly, as much as cower, whimpering, with my arms flung around my head and my eyes firmly shut.
I’ve posted this one before.
This is pretty much actual size. The females are very large spiders and build the world’s largest and strongest web (as much as 10 x 20 feet).
And yes, I almost walked face first into it.
They are called golden for the color of their webs, not the color of the spider.
Beautiful shot. I hope Manny remembers to keep his eyes shut when glancing through. :~)
Here’s the male (in the bottom right hand corner).
He just hangs about on the female’s web sneaking a meal and supplying sperm.
If times get tough, or if she’s feeling cranky, she eats him.
He just hangs about on the female’s web sneaking a meal and supplying sperm.
If times get tough, or if she’s feeling cranky, she eats him.
I’m putting my money on cranky.
I wasn’t going to say it.
It’s raining horizontally at the moment, but unfortunately it’s a light rain. If things don’t change, we’ll officially be in a drought soon.
Luna has come inside and claimed the couch.
I believed the correct wording is “reclaimed.”
True.
I should probably clarify that she doesn’t mind the weather – it’s I who object to wet dog. I just washed her two days ago and I’m trying to make it last another day or so.
The smattering of rain is gone by now anyway.
If I objected to wet dog, I’d have to do without. However, I consider rain to be dog shampoo.
Luna does look nice and comfy on that couch. She and it were clearly meant for each other.
Hope you get a downpour.
I think the web is actually the part that really appeals to me.
Inti, who’s hair is really black, just sunburnt, and Sandy, who’s really white, but gets dirty.
It’s almost impossible to take a photo that will get both of them exposed properly.
I love how they always seem to be smiling.
I think they’re chewing, rather than smiling. But they do look happy most of the time, at least the boys do. Nina tends to look reproachful, because in her mind we are always too late and too meager with the feedings.
A gate blew open when no one was home today and they made a break for the bush portion of the property (which, thankfully, is fully fenced). When Imogen and our housemate got home they managed to herd them back onto the main pasture.
Sniff and Giddy do their tableau of Moses in the Bullrushes.
Who knew they were Talmudic scholars.
Well, they are pretty good at splitting hairs.
That is so darling! And I’m jealous that you still have green grass.
That’s a great photo Chris. The dog looks very proud to be a kitty mom.
It’s a role he seems well suited for. He’s a bit needy, so I’m sure he likes the attention.
I love the black cat’s expression. I think if I look just a little longer, killer rays will shoot out from its eyes.
Found the spider picture I was looking for.
A little closer look.
Nice shot. It kind of sneaks up on you.
Thanks keres. I think that’s the only spider pictures I’ve ever taken. Being that’s the case, I can’t believe how long it took me to find it. 🙂
I took this a few minutes ago.
It’s a sleepy day for critters, but then it usually is.
look at that super-duper-cutie-pie!
Albert looks so incredibly soft … 🙂 Does he mind having his pic taken … he looks like he’s eyeing you.
He is eyeing me, and he minds any disturbance to his slumbers.
He goes in Monday for another x-ray, and hopefully it will be his last.
The poor lil guy!
Poor Manny!
Ooooo. Very nice, and great view of the palps.
Warning GREATLY appreciated! (Though the diary opened to a horrible photo when I clicked it to write this!) Shudder!!!