Love Story
Love is in the air. At least for my orb weavers. Two female garden spiders are hanging out at my place. One is in the dog run, and the other is out by the pool. Each is flanked by webs spun by their male counterparts. I don’t know how they decide to get together or who comes calling on whom. All I know is the victorious male will die shortly after the deed is done. I wonder if he knows that? Does he die happy? The female will then lay her eggs in a nice sack and probably pass on sometime after the first frost.
The males are tiny compared to their female counterparts, and I wonder how all that evolved? What’s the benefit? I bet there’s an arachnologist somewhere who knows the answer, and knowing me, I’ll probably try to find it. After all, if I can understand my spiders I might be able to use them to my advantage. Can you say mosquito? I’ve got plenty and I think predators with webs are decidedly better than me smoking poisons into the air because that kills everything, not just mosquitos.
And last night, while I was out reconnoitering my spider population, I realized a wren was sleeping in a hollow of a cedar post on the porch. A little ball of feathers with a tiny beak sticking out. Just another reminder that nature almost always finds a way, and is not at all adverse to cuddling up to humans if the situation is right and the human is willing to let them be. And for now, we’re all good, and the weather is starting to feel like fall.