Fortress

Western Scrub Jay

A pair of nesting Western Scrub Jays (Aphelocoma californica) is currently providing the most entertaining birdwatching in our yard; their nest is located deep within a portion of the hedge outside our kitchen window. We see the jays landing on the hedge carrying pieces of nesting material, scanning their surroundings, then sinking down into the vegetation. A few minutes later, they pop back up. Without fail, a luckless crow soon arrives–the feathered ruffian makes a frustrated attempt to enter the leafy fortress and raid the nest. Avian drama at it's best!

Backyard Nature: The Garden Spider

The female Garden or Cross Spider resting on her web.  

Backyard nature can come a bit too close at times, for example, an unexpected morning encounter with an orb web. Unless laced with morning dew, the intricately woven silken fly-catcher is nearly invisible. Luckily for my husband, he bumped into the side of the web, leaving the large arachnid sitting intact at the web’s center.

Orb web of the Garden Spider. Photo © Louise Geist.

Including the legs, the Garden Spider, Araneus diadematus, measured at least an inch, indicating that it was a female. From the underside, we could make out the pointy spinnerets, which she uses to spin silk, at the end of her abdomen.

Walking around to the opposite side of the web, we could see the intricate cross-shaped pattern of white spots on her back, which give this species the alternate name of “Cross Spider.”

This spider hails from Europe, according to the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects and Spiders. Its orb consists of circles of sticky silk woven in a flat plane on non sticky spokes. The spider generally resides either at the web’s center, head down, or nearby on a strand of silk connected to the web. The strand transmits vibrations should an insect become entangled.

Female Garden Spider lodged several feet above her orb.

At night, the Garden Spider consumes its old web and builds a new one. In fact, the very next morning, a brand new web had replaced the torn one from the previous day. The Garden Spider, however, was nowhere to be seen. Yet the new, undamaged masterpiece signified that the web’s owner had probably not become a bird’s snack, and, in fact, was likely nearby. Close scrutiny of the surrounding area revealed the spider was resting about five feet above the web in the rafters of the porch overhang. Later that day, she resumed her central perch within the orb.–Anne M. Rosenthal