Tired Turkey

This is just something cute to share.  Our local mother wild turkey brought her new brood by the backyard today.  The terrain is hilly with lot's of obstacles, like steps and vegetation.  This little one got tired of navigating the grass, and took a 30 second power nap in the sun on the way past. 

We can hear the brood making it's way around, constantly peeping at varies distances behind mom.  They are learning the ropes.  Click here to see some of last years crew, and here for 2011 (where I also learned to respect mamma turkey!).  

Baby Garden Spiders

Last year must have been a banner year for garden spiders.  This past month, we've seen many little clusters of newly hatched babies.  The babies are tiny, pin head size.  The top photo below is next to a standard size household rain gutter, for size comparison.

The babies tend to stay in a tight ball, all on thin webs clustered together.  If the web is disturbed, by wind or physically touching part of it, the spiders scatter in a tiny little cascade, dispersing any target.  If the disturbance does not continue, they all pull back into the cluster in a few minutes.

I think these are cross-orb weavers (Araneus diadematus), a stow away from Europe.


Spidey-facts


Watch one of the adults building a web - http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/European_garden_spider#p00grb0l