Isn't nature amazing!(not for arachnaphobics!)

[crazycanuck]

I have to share some rather odd photos someone sent me yesterday. I have no idea what type of spider it was that spun the web but :eek:!!! The pics are from just outside Cairns(northern QLD)

I'm happy to say i now don't mind Redbacks or Whitetails!!!

[Biciclista]

um, you have some rather large spiders over there?!!!!!!

:eek::eek::eek:

[Red Rock]

Those are awsome pictures. Do you really have spiders that are that large? I can't imagine one eating a bird!! Wow.

Red Rock

[emily_in_nc]

That is horrifying and very sad. I know it's nature, but! :eek:

Bird lover here.... :(

[Aquila]

That's one big spider! (And I'll bet it's little spider brain is thinking Parteh!)

[crazycanuck]

Aha! Thanks trekhawk!

[Trekhawk]

Here is some info on the pic.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=652115

[OakLeaf]

Eek! And I'd been thinking I was brave for nonchalantly wrestling my oregano away from the garden spider with the 3 cm body that's set up housekeeping in my herb bed!

ETA: OIC, that's a golden silk orb-weaver, same genus as the ones we have in Florida. Big and very docile, but accidentally walking through their webs is a little bit freaky - that silk is tough. The funny thing is that the big ones are the females. The males are less than 1.5 cm legs and all!

[tulip]

My father has told me about spiders catching birds when he was growing up in southern Louisiana. I've seen those spiders and their webs, way up in the trees, and I'm glad I'm not a bird.

[Biciclista]

I'm glad I'm not a spider OR a bird. :cool:

[Aggie_Ama]

That is crazy and such a pretty little finch. :o Sometimes I just can't handle nature.

[Andrea]

I love spiders! I sat at a window for about half an hour one day watching a big one (for these parts :D) who had a fat red wasp of equal size caught in its web. They were literally fighting to the death... the wasp was trying to spear the spider and the spider was trying to get good position to bite the wasp! It was so exciting! I was rooting for the spider, of course, and actually jumped up & cheered for it when it finally managed a bite. A couple of hours later, the wasp was packaged in silk and the spider was sitting on it having dinner :D

[firenze11]

:eek: I was sure that was photoshopped or something. I hope I never run into one of those! Poor bird.

[bmccasland]

I still can't get over the size of the spider! I can easily imagine the size of the finch, which makes it one BIG spider as spiders go. That give me the heebee jeebees! :eek: I don't mind spiders, although I'm not to keen on running into their webs when I'm doing field work. Not sure what I'd do if I saw something that big lurking on the web.

Looks like something you'd see on a Grade-B SciFi movie. Giant Spider Terrorizes Neighborhood!

[Smilie]

That just may give me nightmares. *shudder*

[GLC1968]

Well THAT explains it.

My husband has an irrational fear of spiders...even tiny ones. He says it developed when he spent 3 years in Australia. Now I see why! :eek:

(I'll try and be more symathetic to him now ;))

[Aggie_Ama]

My brother is arachnaphobic, seriously I have to kill them for him and I don't know why. Maybe he saw a photo like this ages ago?

[wackyjacky1]

Holy (beep)!!! I am seriously wigged out right now. :eek:

[Miranda]

Oh my...

I love feeding my birds, and I love nature. But... Wow...

I just read a quote in a mag tonight made once by Vincent Van Gogh, "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere".

Gheez... I know the world has to have survival of the fittess, but that's almost Mother Nature's irony... birds are normally predators to spiders. Not the other way around! :eek: