Our native Eresus species (E. sandaliatus) are delightful, but scarcely seen beauties. The males with striking red abdomens and black spots give them their common name – the Ladybird spider; the females, who spend much of their time in tiny burrows are larger and a pristine velvety black.

Their heathland habitat is certainly not as common as it once was, and now some jolly fabulous conservationists have taken a famously good step by creating a new 30-strong colony in the RSPB Arne reserve in Dorset.

This species is extremely rare in Britain (I know of only 3 or 4 colonies) that they are protected by law – so no nipping off to Dorset to get one as a pet.
Here’s hoping that the new colony will settle in and help grow the population.
(And that I one day get a chance to meet these gentle darlings.)

Image by Viridiflavus.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

My wife and I had a beautiful weekend in Bath recently and thoroughly enjoyed the Kid’s Literature festival that we were there to attend – meeting authors and hearing some really interesting talks.

I had another rather exciting experience while we were there. One I could only be sure I’d had when I got home… I had met a spider I had never met before! And not just a different species – this was from a family which I’ve never seen before too.

Before I tell you who it was, here’s a little sciencey-bit:
In the world there are currently around 40,000 described species of spider – with more being added each day! Some entomologists suspect we have only yet described about half of the species that exist.
These species are divided into a large number of families of spiders, the most numerous of which are the jumping spiders, followed by the orb-web spiders and so on. There are just over 100 families of spiders. Of these only ONE family has spiders with no venom glands, it is named Uloboridae. (Of the remaining majority of venomous spiders very few are even capable of envenomating humans, so this is not a problem! Don’t be scared.)

In the UK we have several hundred native species of spiders, which represent 34 of these spider families.
We have two spiders representing the family Uloboridae… Both of which are relatively scarce.
On Saturday I met one of these two…
Say hello to the fascinating Uloborus walckenaerius.

It is a most amazing spider with thickened, almost feathery front legs which it holds together in front of it in a very characteristic pose (hence how I recognised it initially – although I needed to check it when I got home to be sure). Apart from being genuinely completely harmless it is striking in that its body structure is very dramatically knobbly.
Its family also has a nickname: hackled orb weavers. This comes from the fact that they ‘comb’ their silk (with a structure on their hind legs called a calamistrum) into a wooly, tangly thread, which they use instead of the normal sticky silk that other orb-weavers use in their webs.

A real find and a lovely bit of excitement as I watched it scurry off up its web and then stop suddenly, clamping its legs together and freezing just like the picture. Remarkable and pretty too.

Anyway, just wanted to share the excitement!

Sadly I have no pretty pictures to show you, but here’s a nice screenshot from Google Maps showing the precise location where I spot my friends basically every day!

Grey Wagtails (as I’m sure many of you will know) are one of the worst-named birds in history. There is a logic to it, but it’s a bit crumby… There are three types of Wagtail found in the UK:

The Pied Wagtail is found in most urban areas as well as areas of the countryside. It is black and white and has a cute habit (as all three do) of bobbing its tail up and down almost incessantly as it walks around looking for little morsels to eat.

The Grey Wagtail has a very obvious differentiating feature to tell it apart from the Pied. It has a BLAZINGLY yellow chest and belly. In fact, after you notice the characteristic tail-flicking (or the equally recognisable swooping, soaring flight) and turn to look look at it it is the first thing you’ll notice. Actually, most times I see a flash of yellow and realise it is a Grey Wagtail even before I’ve focused on it!

So, why isn’t this called the Yellow Wagtail or something, then? Colour-blind ornithologists? Well, no. The Grey Wagtail does in fact have a grey back and wings – so some method to the madness. And also because of the - wait for it…

Yellow Wagtail! Yep, we have a migrant that stops over occasionally that is almost completely yellow, so I guess it has deserved the right to that name.

I love Grey Wagtails, although I like to think “-and-yellow” to myself when I mention them to people
The yellow on these birds is really truly gorgeous and can be best described as Lemon Curd, or maybe Buttercup. Delightful things, and so sweet in the frenetic movement as they zip over the water on secluded streams and shallow waterways, or as they perch fleetingly on rocks in the middle of a hidden river.

I get to see these charmers every so often as I take a wander down by the river in our town, or upstream near my parents-in-law’s house. I always enjoy seeing them from afar, quietly watching and trying to avoid making a noise (the wagtails, not my wife’s family!!).

On the bus I regularly catch to work I pass through the tiny village(?) of Hele, with its big factory by the water, and as the bus trundles over the bridge I always take a peep at what might be down in the shallow, rocky stream.

Then one day a few months ago I was jolly pleased as I saw this distant streak of lemon swoop down and land on one of the stones mid-stream. My eyes lit up as the 3-second viewing (time the bus takes to clear the bridge) ended and I looked around to see if anyone else had shared my happy treat. Nope. No-one looks out of those windows. Nothing seems to grab their attention in the fields, woodland and waterways of East Devon. I have completed that journey perhaps several HUNDRED times over the years and I can say that there really is never a dull day when you look out of the double-decker’s windows. (Ok, rant over!)

So the next day I looked as I crossed the same bridge, hoping that it wasn’t a one-off. No sir, not a wagtail in sight. But… ooh, look everyone (I didn’t say) there’s a Dipper! (Look it up – beautiful brown bird with a white chest).

Surprisingly I have keep up with looking out at that one particular place every journey. Over the following days I had some days with no birds in view. Then one day the next week I saw 2 Grey Waggers! Wow.

However, over the last few Summer-y weeks I have had the pleasure of watching EVERY DAY a 3-second snippet of the antics of up to 7 Grey Wagtails. All flitting, bobbing, wagging and jostling about for space on the few rocks and the parapet of the other bridge. What a delight!

Oh, and still none of the other commuters have seen them.

For those of you who read my blog regularly you’ll know that I posted a ‘guest’ article on wildaboutdevon.co.uk about the Cave Spiders I had spotted at Killerton last year, and my follow-up trip back in February.

Well I had a chance to pop back for another visit the other weekend. I took a torch and camera, and my patient wife kindly accommodated our extended stay in and around the Ice-House.

As you no doubt guessed from the title of this post, I wasn’t disappointed. There were indeed 8 adult female cave spiders on their hair-fine webs.
I find these spiders truly wonderful and beautiful. They have lovely patterning under the fine hairs on their back and they are subtlely varied. I’ve popped a whole album of photos on the Gallery page, so you can have a good look and see if you agree…
I also hope to pop a short video up soon to show you just where they were (they might move around a bit, but it should help you get an idea where to look), but I’d suggest you take a torch if you do visit, as the lights and torch provided by the National Trust often aren’t working.

I am planning to write a short Fact File for this spider to post up soon. If that goes down well I might have a go at compliling a bunch of them into an eBook. Just a thought

Ok, so I thought it might be worth writing something that isn’t related to spiders or the website… Good idea?

I had an afternoon off on Friday (the day before my birthday) and my wife and I visited Knightshayes Court, a National Trust property near Tiverton, Devon. The woodland gardens there are gorgeous and we spent a lovely time relaxing on a rug in a remote area and listening to the near-silence and the resulting birdsong and stillness. After a while I spotted the flitting about of a small birdy in a low tree nearby. Now I am particularly poor at identifying trees, but this one was about 10 feet tall, but widely spread over 20 feet or so and had yellow blossomy stuff all over. I guessed from the movement that the cute bird was a goldcrest, which is one of the UK’s tiniest birds at 9cm long! They are very fast moving and rarely stay still, especially when people are tramping about. It disappeared from sight.

A little while later and Susie was photographing some prettiness amongst the low-hanging branches of that tree, when I spotted movement nearby. Our visitor was back! As Susie watched it I came to join her amongst the branches and we quickly confirmed that it was indeed a goldcrest. To our amazement it was not bothered about our presence and carried on its hummingbird-like flights around the tree, bouncing and flitting between the branches collecting invisible insects with its pin-sized beak. It spiralled around the tree, in the branches beside and above us, and at times was within about 3 feet of us. It was an incredible experience that we will never forget.

After a minute or two she (I’m guessing here, the gents are identical to the lady goldcrests) finished her rounds in our tree and went off beyond our view. We couldn’t believe how close and how clear the views were. We could see every feature of this sweet and delicate bird.

We stayed in the area for a while, photographing other things, but a little while later the dear goldcrest returned. We both took some photos – Susie using our digital SLR and me with my trusty digital compact. Very tough work as her movements are almost constant and very hard to focus on. But you can see that the results were good enough to prove our story.

We had been unusually close to a wonderful bird, but in reality if you spend time in tree-ish and secluded spots and your behaviour is sensitive to your surroundings you can get views just like these.

Get out there and get spotting!

Hi guys, just a quick post to say that Denise at ‘Wild About Devon’ has just posted a short article by me about my experience meeting the Cave Spiders of Killerton.
Check it out here: http://www.wildaboutdevon.co.uk/?p=1243

Enjoy

Well I’ve just signed up to twitterfeed.com so you will be notified the moment (ok, within 30 minutes…) I update the NG blog.

Hurrah!
NG

So sorry, I haven’t updated for somewhere near 2.6 squiftillion (thanks Lloyd) years.
However, I do promise to do better. I am now updating you (whether you knew it or not!) by Twitter. Check me out and Follow me here: https://twitter.com/naturegazing

Pictures, up-to-the-timeperiod updates on les animaux, and facty stuff.

Check me out.

And so to the second in the series about ‘Spiders In The Movies’. This time I will focus on a film that caused me to sigh in disbelief upon a recent re-watching due to its use of ‘Hollywood’ spider knowledge.

The movie in question is the inaugural cinematic outing for a certain James Bond. Please watch Exhibit A – ‘Doctor No’. The key scene to which I am referring is a scene where the baddie commands Professor Dent to kill Bond by slipping a DEADLY CREATURE into his bedroom! Dent is then presented with a tarantula in a cage. To which, if he knew anything about spiders, Dent should have then responded, “Thank you Doctor for this docile pet. Now, where is a deadly animal that I can use to kill Bond??!”

Of course, Dent does not, he instead fearfully takes the cage at arm’s length and whimpers as he retreats from the room. The spider is then slipped into Bond’s room and wanders inexorably towards Bond’s sleeping form. It then climbs the bed, creeps under the sheet and up Bond’s body, until it emerges on his arm, finally waking him (heavy sleeper?). Bond is obviously no scaredy-cat – he doesn’t scream, cry or start to babble incoherently: he just stares at the dark spider, planning his moves before the vicious and bloodthirsty monster in all probability devours him! Twisting with cat-like reflexes, he suddenly flicks the beast heroically to the floor, whereupon the music crescendos as he manfully squashes it half a dozen times with his standard-issue spy-shoe. What a chap.

“So, smarty-pants,” you ask me. “What is likely to have happened in this situation?” Well, in all likelihood the tarantula’s first thought upon being chucked into Bond’s room would be to find a quiet, dark area to hide – safety first, eh? After a while it might have explored the room, looking for possible food sources – large insects, or maybe small rodents. The tarantula has poor eyesight, so it certainly couldn’t have seen Bond from the other side of the room. If the spider were to have stumbled upon Bond, sleeping like a tired pixie, it would have probably ignored him. If, however, the womanising spy had rolled on top of the spider, or cuddled it too tightly (he is an amorous gentleman!), then the spider may have used its venomous bite for self-defence. Bond would certainly have woken up due to the ouch-inducing bite; and had to stay awake for a short while until the wound, similar to a hornet-sting, had eased its tortuous soreness. His arm would have been tender for a few days later, after which it would have been all healed up nicely.

So, do I think Fleming is a fool? Well, not exactly… the original novel calls for Dent to send a venomous centipede into Bond’s room instead of the mostly-harmless tarantula – it was the movie producers that changed this, due to more ‘awareness’ of tarantulas as a scary beast. But Fleming is not entirely off the hook, because large, venomous centipedes, too, are rather demonised as deadly beasts, in a similar way to the tarantula (see the American Tarantula Society’s article at: http://atshq.org/articles/centipedes.html). There are no known cases of death-by-centipede, although they can cause a very painful, nasty bite.

So, film-makers have a lesson to learn – tarantulas aren’t deadly. However, until the general public embrace spiders as their friends I expect there will be many more instances of vicious spider attacks onscreen.

If you have been affected by the issue raised in this blog – the tragic criminalisation of the beautiful tarantula – then don’t watch the following:
The Hound of The Baskervilles (Hammer version)
Arachnophobia
Eight Legged Freaks

Enjoy watching, Nature Gazers