Nature Study Discoveries September 5

This month I am going to post the different nature study discoveries we come upon as a family.  We are not specializing in anything specific this month.  I just want to share what interesting things we find in hopes of inspiring other families to look for treasures in their own back yard.

There is always something to observe, no matter where you are.

(Disclaimer:  This is another spider observation.  I know some of you are not highly fond of spiders, so continue only if you wish. I hope you will though. )

Today's discovery is not so much a new species as it is being able to see the life cycle of this backyard little friend.  Yes, I'm calling this spider a backyard friend.  He is the Yellow and Black Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) I've posted about before.  They are harmless to humans and are actually wonderful assets to your garden because they keep the pesky bugs at bay.  We have found at least 3 of these spiders around our house this past month.  Yes, they are rather BIG when it comes to backyard spiders.  I keep a healthy distance.

I didn't even see this one, until my youngest son shouted as I was coming out of the door onto our deck,  "Mommy look ABOVE your head!"  Oh my!  Yes, directly above my head is Mama spider and her egg sac.  A very LARGE egg sac from other sacs I've seen.  Wow..... it makes me recall the story of Charlotte's Web right away.  I did move out from under the door fairly quickly.  This is amazing though.  I promise I am not obsessed with spiders.  It is just what we seem to keep finding the past few weeks and both of my sons are enthralled with them.  They even checked on the green Lynx spider which we found yesterday on one of our Zinnias.  It's still there this morning.

After our discovery this morning, my youngest is drawing in his nature study journal.

In order to draw details of this particular spider I printed out an informational page from the internet for my son to go by.  Normally when keeping a nature study journal you are to draw while you are outside.  Drawing a live specimen is very difficult to do when you are drawing insects or spiders.  I like to take photos of what we observe and print those for us to draw.  We still observe them, but by looking at our photos, field guide pictures or internet photos, our drawings are much better.  I am not an expert at the nature study journal.  We keep things simple.  The key is to document what we see and observe details, so we have a history of some of the interesting things we have found.   

Enjoy your backyards or where ever you might be!  The world awaits!