A spider I happened to notice a while back while out and about. Its markings and size caught my eye, as it was very different from the spiders I typically see around here. I doubt they are rare, but it was new to me and I wanted to get a close up picture. It might not look particularly close, but it’s a phone camera with no optical zoom. I was only a couple of inches from the subject and didn’t want to disturb them.
Looks a bit like a golden orb weaver. I love these spiders. Even though my wife has arachnophobia I always wanted to show them to her because they’re so cool but I know she’d hate it. Haha
Definitely an orb weaver. I have a love hate relationship with them. They are beautiful and build beautiful webs. They happen to build those webs in the worst places though. I run early in the morning, so I’m frequently the first through the paths/walkways. Once the weather gets a bit warmer they start really building huge webs from one tree to another, across my running paths. For the last couple months there has not been a single run where I didn’t end up covered in their homes/them. Face full of web and the accompanying spider is NOT fun.
That looks very close too checking image results! I’m not particularly knowledgeable with identification, I just did a reverse image search and was comparing the shape and markings. With some of the things labeled golden orb weaver and yellow garden I am having a lot of trouble telling them apart.
Either way it is indeed quite a cool little creature!
I love how they’re called “Common Garden Spider”, but I’ve only ever seen one in my life. The one I saw was huge compared with other spiders in my area, and was sitting in the center of a giant web. When I walked up to look at it a bit closer, it started to undulate it’s body causing the web to shake and flex like a vertical trampoline. I’ve never seen any thing like that in my life, it was quiet a surprise!
Ooh that’s really cool! I guess in some areas they are more abundant, but at least we got to spot one. Sadly didn’t get to see a web myself, do you happen to remember what it looked like?
I sure do, I won’t forget, it scared the shit out of me! They’re considered orb weavers, so they weave those flat vertically oriented webs with circles going out radially. The center where the spider sits had a zig zag pattern of webbing going vertically.
Here’s a video of the threat display (I didn’t take this video, I was just thrilled I found a video of the undulating)
That’s impressive they’re able to shake like that, that’d freak me out too if I didn’t know it was gonna happen! Very cool web design as well, thank you for taking the time to find those visuals!
Glad to share!
You might just live on the edge of their range or something! Here in the SE US they are abundant
I can head out to a nature trail, look off into the woods on one side, and spot 2-4 of these beauties suspended in webs from the same spot.
Only ever had one in my yard, unfortunately she chose to build a web right above the porch door and gave us quite a fright
Yeah it’s possible. I am no stranger to hiking and these little ones have stayed out of my sight while doing it over the years. This one however was just sitting on a wall, waiting to be discovered! Also I can imagine, suddenly running into a spider like this and its web right outside your door would be quite a sudden shock!
