November 8, 2016 – Last week, I had a Halloween Surprise – More Hatching Spiders! In my last post, I mentioned that a stand of water hyacinths at the St. Augustine Road Fish Management Area were beginning to bloom. These are non-native plants, often a big headache for Florida waterways, but the blooms are lovely. I’ve…
Spiders
Surprise: Hatching Spiders!
April 2016 ~ Well this is what we get for leaving town. A surprise: hatching spiders! On my shoe! This past winter, we didn’t have many opportunities to make our daily walk around the lake, then we were out of the country for almost two months. A little spider took advantage of the lull in…
Mating Spiders!
More excitement this summer – mating spiders! I recently posted about some of our summer spider finds in the park. The Golden-silk Orbweaver, Nephila clavipes, at over two inches, was one of the largest we’d ever seen of this species. She was surrounded by smaller males and seemed to be attracting more by the day….
Sp…Sp…Sp…Spiders!
August was the best month for spiders! In addition to my favorite Orchard Spiders, I found loads of the little funnel weaving spiders and a few little crab-like Spiny Backed Orb Weavers. But the best were two of the largest that I’ve seen yet: The first find was the Black and Yellow Garden Spider, Argiope aurantia….
August 2015
It was hot and rainy but wow, did we find some interesting things. I have never seen a giant mosquito. This thing was huge – like an inch long. It looked exactly like a mosquito but I didn’t believe it was until I got home and looked it up. The common name is Gallinipper – …
January at the St. Augustine Road Fish Management Area
This cool (and rainy) January made for pleasant walks through Earl Johnson Park, a.k.a., the St. Augustine Road Fish Management Area. The usual coots and gallinules were there and last week, we saw one of my favorites, a Wood Stork! We see them in other ponds in the area but rarely around these lakes. There is always…
Spider with Egg Sac
This week’s Photo Friday challenge is “Structure”. Last week I mentioned small structures on the Bald Cypress trees around the pond at the St Augustine Road Fish Management Area (a.k.a, Earl Johnson Park). They are galls, produced by the Cypress Twig Gall Midge, Taxodiomyia cupressiananassa. One had a tiny spider on it and now that spider has woven…