As a follow up to the recent spider story please be advised of the following. The female banana spider, we have named Charlotte, is alone in her web. The male spider has vanished perhaps as a meal for her after a failed, or hopefully at least for him, successful attempt at a sexual tryst. She hasn't had much success the last few days catching prey in her web. This may have resulted in him becoming a tasty morsel for her.
Lily and I saw a occurrence on our walk this morning. We got about three houses to the west and a couple of gray squirrels were running and playing while climbing the tree. They got about twenty feet up when one of them lost his or her footing. It was a long fall climaxed by an impressive belly flop onto the sandy edge of the road. The squirrel was stunned for a second or so then run back up the tree.
In what was a good day in sports yesterday the Green Bay Packers lost their opening game of the season. As a Bears fan I have two favorite teams. The Bears of course and anyone who is playing against the Packers. The other good news was the Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers to extend their division lead to four games. I if the Cardinals do not suffer an epic collapse it looks like we will head to the playoffs again. Football and baseball season overlap is the best time of year.
In nature, life feeds on life, and as is so often the case, brutal. I suppose both parties to the tryst got what they wanted - mostly to perpetuate the species. After that, well, it's dog eat dog, or in this case spider eat spider.
ReplyDeleteI once saw a squirrel do a Papa Wallenda on the power line over Grove Street. This one plunged to the brick road below and the thud was a bit sickening. However, after lying there stunned for awhile, it was able to haul itself off the road into a pine tree and well, who knows. Tough little rats.
While my playoff hopes have been dashed for a 6th straight year I, too, am happy to have the overlap. It is a fun time of year for sports. While I have no particular team I root for in football, I am nevertheless a football fan and enjoy the games.