Spider Snack

Well, it's not a wild Alaska adventure or caribou or anything like that, but I was playing around in the yard with my new digital camera and saw something really cool I wanted to share.

I chose my camera (Canon SD800) because it was very small and compact, could be set to an automatic mode where it's as easy as a cardboard disposable camera to use, could be set to manual mode where I can tweak around with things and change settings (at the risk of getting either really great photos or blurred shadows and glare), and 'cause it has image stabilization, which is great when you're crouching sideways straddling a rock to get a close up of the underside of a leaf in a coastal forest on an overcast day. Or when you're just taking photos of a spider in the garden.

I had been taking pictures of the artichokes, when I noticed this cute little spider who had strung a web between a tree branch and the artichokes. It was a tiny little yellow thing about the size of a ladybug. He was cruising back and forth across the web and I was playing with the digital macro and zoom, trying to see how close I could get and whether or not I could actually capture the strands of the web on camera. It was kind of nauseating trying to keep the moving spider in the image while the web vibrated with the slightest breeze (like my breath). I was also trying to keep from doing a face plant into the web.


It took me a few tries before I could got the camera to focus in on the spider instead of the plants behind it. After a few minutes of moving around the web and the web vibrating like crazy the spider got pretty still and I tried to see how much magnification I could get on him. As I was looking at the images on the camera's screen I noticed that he was eating a bug (or just killing it and embalming it for later - I'm still not sure).



He looks huge here, but this spider was really tiny -- lady bug sized, including legs. He was small enough that I couldn't see he was holding an even smaller bug until after I'd already taken a few shots. Pretty amazing. If you click on this one to the right and look at the larger size you can see the hairs all over the body.



I snuck around to the other side (trying not to step on any plants or knock down the artichoke that was anchoring the web). A great view of the underside -- and whatever kind of newly mummified spider treat that is. Yeeatch!

So maybe it doesn't take much to excite me these days (in a family full of adrenaline junkies), but my biggest thrill this past Sunday afternoon was watching my own little "Wild Kingdom" in the backyard. It reminded me of John catching moths and tossing them in the fish tank to watch the fish eat them. By the time I was done shooting the spider, I was feeling a little remorseful that I had already bagged and tossed the dead opossum Pecos killed the night before. There was some great bug action on that thing. (yes, Mom -- the dogs got their Frontline this month)