Tag Archives: spider’s web

Dec 11 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Hard at work, in the wrong place

Wednesday 10th December 2025, 9.55am (day 5,221)

Spider at work, 10/12/25

This spider was not a big one, but its web was expansive enough, and as you can see, it’s still hard at work with the building. What marvellous creatures these are: there are many species which build some kind of dwelling, of course, but can’t manage it purely with goo extruded out from their bodies.

However, you can see that it’s working on the outside of a rather grubby window (the kitchen one, as it happens). By the evening, evidence (like, a bill on the doormat) then suggested our window cleaner had been round on one of his seasonal visits and all this was nowhere to be seen. I bet the spider was substantially pissed off, I know I would have been.

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May 03 2024
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Web across the path

Thursday 2nd May 2024, 10.00am (day 4,634)

Cobweb, 2/5/24

There is nothing St Helena-specific about this shot, but on the other hand, this isn’t the kind of thing I would expect to see stretched across my path on my walk to work in Manchester. But here it was this morning, as I headed for my appointment at the local secondary school. Big bugger too: I was kinda glad the maker wasn’t at home; what you see in the centre is just the remains of its last meal, by the looks of things.

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Dec 17 2018
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Death of the wasp

Monday 17th December 2018, 1.05pm (day 2,671)

Death of the wasp, 17/12/18

This could be the first confirmed death of an organism to be documented on the blog: unlike this bumblebee, the wasp didn’t get away. Paralysed, wrapped in unbreakable bonds and dragged away to some dark corner where its captor will slowly suck its juices out over the next couple of days. I hope your ending is not as harsh as that. Nor mine, come to that.

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Jul 09 2017
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Hammock/web

Sunday 9th July 2017, 1.25pm (day 2,145)

Hammock/web, 9/7/17

Continuing to clear the allotment, I find this cobweb behind the most concealed of our collection of water butts. I like its dappling by sunlight and the way that tiny flower has fallen onto and nestled into it, pushing down delicately, like it’s a meniscus or the most fragile of hammocks one can imagine.

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May 11 2013
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Tent-web spiders (feel free to avoid)

Saturday 11th May 2013, 3.50pm (day 625)

Tent web spiders, 11/5/13

OK, look, I know that this picture will freak some of you out but like the picture of the cave spider I took last year, there is such beauty in this creature. Though I don’t necessarily want a couple of dozen of these things out on the verandah of my house – which my friend Fiona seems to have at the moment. And note that the smaller one visible above is not a baby – it’s the male of the species. These things spin huge communal webs, the size of which beggars belief. But, thank heavens, they are not poisonous.

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Sep 19 2011
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna Gallery

Railings and cobweb, my front doorstep

Monday 19th September 2011, 9.50am (day 25)

Railings and cobweb, front doorstep, 19/9/11

Today was the first day of the new academic year in Manchester. I skulked at home and hid away so profoundly that I never even left the house, the first such day while doing this blog. So I had to find inspiration at home. My old Victorian house is helpful in that regard, if only because of its occasional decrepitude. This is by my front door step – the furthest I got out today. I’ll meet the new students tomorrow.

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