Saturday 22 May 2010

Dusty Sparrows and Sheets of Silk

As we were returning from a gentle walk round the cricket field I saw the usual group of House Sparrows having a good old bathe in the dust.

Sparrows Dust Bathing

With the Lumix TZ7 I was able to get the above still shot and the following hand held video.



It had been a misty night and there was plenty of dew on the hedges this morning. On one particular hedge was a line of sheet webs. A type I had never really noticed before.

Sheet Web 2

Sheet Web 1

I wonder how long it takes a spider to construct these webs as they seem to have a lot more silk in their construction than in an orb web. A criss cross of single threads can be seen above the web. The idea being that a flying insect will bump into a thread and be knocked down to land in the sheet web. Fascinating how many different ways various species of spider have developed to catch their prey.

9 comments:

  1. I really miss seeing sparrows! Years ago they were all over the place, and now I don't think I've seen one in the garden for many years. Lots of tits, finches, blackbirds, magpies, starlings and lots of parrots!! but no sparrows. Shame.

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  2. Can't say i've noticed webs that size. I wonder what sort of spider constructs them. I have noticed sparrows are on the increase again, or seem to be.

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  3. Sometimes, Matron, I wish I could export a few from here, especially when they all start chattering at the same time. Mind you I think they are less raucous than your parrots so I'll put up with them for now.

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  4. Hello Adrian. The webs are 9 to 10 inches long and I don't remember seeing them before. I must have a look for the spider another morning.

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  5. Those mist-covered webs are gorgeous.

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  6. Beautiful shots John! You are really doing a fantastic job at capturing nature at its best here on your blog - good work, keep it up!

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  7. They are certainly different, Wilma. When I saw them they reminded me of a safety net under a trapeze act at the circus.

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  8. Thank you for your kind comment Maree.

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  9. Adrian - I am sure I saw one of the spiders this morning and it was tiny (less than 3mm), so small the camera couldn't focus on it unfortunately.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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