Common or Garden UFO

Do you have a favorite location you like to photograph or collect specimens? Share these locations with your fellow members by submitting each location as a topic.

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ChrisR
Site Admin
Posts: 8662
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:58 am
Location: Near London, UK

Common or Garden UFO

Post by ChrisR »

In my local park I was startled by something flying at about head height, over a path.
This is "all" it turned out to be, running along a tight-rope between two trees. But the nearer tree was about 5 metres away! With a light drizzle and no wind, that's clever, especially with as I've just noticed, a leg or two short.
How the strand of web survived, I have no idea. The spider was up into one of the trees in a few seconds. Rather a substandard pic, sorry!

Image

Image
Lumix P&P

It's a wonderful old Royal Park, SSSI etc, which has been there several hundred years, so it's rich in ancient and veteran deciduous trees which host a number of species endemic to the park. It deserves some decent pictures from me sometime!
Its tree is here

missgecko
Posts: 252
Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:59 am
Location: Australia

Post by missgecko »

Hey Chris, I reckon this one is it's twin. One of my favourite spots is our deck at night time when all the crawlies come out and this one was horizontally climbing along to wherever the web ended.

Image

Cheers
Sam

'To see a world in a grain of sand And heaven in a wild flower. Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour.' William Blake

Harold Gough
Posts: 5786
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:17 am
Location: Reading, Berkshire, England

Post by Harold Gough »

Chris,

It looks long-dead to me.

As for web lengths, Araneus diadematus, in my garden this autumn, have been daily building webs with positioning strands running up to several metters, in one, two or more directions, to the nearest trees and shrubs.

Harold
My images are a medium for sharing some of my experiences: they are not me.

ChrisR
Site Admin
Posts: 8662
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:58 am
Location: Near London, UK

Post by ChrisR »

Very much alive and running, Harold!
Yes MissG, note yours has no raindrops!
We get 2 - 3 meters around the house, I though something over 10 in this case, was remarkable.

GrayPlayer
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2009 5:44 pm

Post by GrayPlayer »

Believe spiders can "eject" material into the wind to make long distant connections.
Fred H.

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