The last few mornings have been stunning and I have been out early with my dog. I walk him to a small piece of common land, where there is a lot of rough grass and a small brook. As the sun rose this morning, the area hung with a light mist and the ground was heavy with dew. This area must be home to a huge number of spiders as just about every vertical surface has been draped with dew-laden webs, of every shape and size. Like necklaces with jewelled gems, the webs sparkled in the low light and transformed the landscape into something reminiscent of a fairy tale! There were quite literally millions of webs, each constructed over night and hung, waiting to ensnare a passing insect. I would not fancy being an insect trying to negotiate this network of lairs!
A few webs displayed their creator, immobile and coated in dew, in the centre of their own masterpiece, each unique in its construction… no web quite the same as the next. Yet this phenomenon lasts only an hour at the most…. as the sun rises, the dew evaporates and the webs become almost invisible once again. ….
(Click on the image to see an enlarged view)
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