The fire has left all kinds of burnt bizarre things behind, including this tree where a branch has gone and the inside is now hollow. Home for a possum or owl perhaps?
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| Not sure if this is a native geranium or pelargonium. |
If you saw us walking along, waving a large stick in front of us, you might think us mad. But this is what we are trying to avoid - walking into the web of one of these. They are St Andrews spiders (I think) and are enjoying catching all the grasshoppers bounding around at the moment.
(Note: thanks to Snail, I now know this is a golden orb weaver - see comments.)
Same web but this spider was off to one side. Is this its back, or an egg sac?
Lots of kookaburras around at the moment. Two youngsters keeping their eyes on things.
3 comments:
Your spider is a female golden orb weaver (Nephila). if you have a look around the outer threads of the web you might spot the much, much smaller male g.o.w. Also dewdrop spiders (Argyrodes) and some other little 'uns, which are kleptoparasites -- they don't build their own webs but pinch food from the orb weaver.
Thanks! Actually when I enlarged my own copy I think I spotted the male actually sitting on her. If it's him, he is *very* small in comparison. Is the second one also an orb weaver?
They're both golden orb weavers. The males are tiny in comparison! This pic from Find a Spider shows the difference in size: http://www.findaspider.org.au/find/spiders/images/116F10.jpg
Those webs are spectacular but bloody awful if you walk into them.
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