One Lost, One Saved (maybe…)

[varice]

Since I have retired and moved to my new home, I have expanded one of my favorite hobbies, to feed hummingbirds. Now, in the fall season of the North American hemisphere, the birds come through my area on their migration to South America for the winter, and the local population here just explodes.

But unfortunately, I discovered too late yesterday that a bird had been snared in the web of a large spider beside a small shed in my backyard. By the time that I noticed it, the hummer was already dead and the spider was feeding on it. I then moved the spider web in an effort to reduce the chance that it would snare another bird.

But today, while I was on my back porch watching the large swarm of hummers enjoying my sugar feeders, I suddenly noticed that another hummingbird was snared and the spider was furiously wrapping it in a web! The poor hummer was chirping loudly in shear terror! I jumped off the porch and knocked the spider web to the ground to try and separate the spider from the bird before the spider could bite it and inject its lethal venom. I think that I saved that bird from a lethal bite! But the poor bird was already covered with a strong sticky web. As I gently picked it up from the grass, I started to remove the web, but it was nasty stuff. As I tried to pull it off, the sticky crap was removing some feathers too. I was able to remove much of it from the poor frightened bird, and then I held it up to a sugar feeder to allow it to hopefully regain some strength, and it drank some. But, a little while later, it started to list to one side, and acted as if it was getting badly disoriented. I thought that maybe I had failed to save it, and that it would not survive the stress and shock of the whole event. I set it down on the floor of the porch and then stood very still. After a few minutes, it began to preen its wings in an effort to remove the remaining web, a very encouraging sign! I gently scooped the bird up and placed it on the hand rail of my porch swing as it was getting late in the day and starting to get dark. If it wanted to stay there overnight, I would do my best to protect it, but as I tried to slowly move away, it took flight away towards the nearest tree! I could not see if it landed there safely. I hope that it did.

Amazing… three years after retirement, and one of my most personally fulfilling days since then has been the hope that I helped save a single hummingbird from a horrible death…

[nobody]

Thanks for sharing that story. I would do the same thing for any ensnared birds.

Srsly, Mr. Spider, stick to insects. K thx bai.

[blue hell]

Amazing ... I thought how can a bird be caught in a spider web ... then I saw how small hummingbirds can be (nothing like that here) .. still must be quite a spider

Hope it will manage!

[DrJustice]

Nice I sometimes save birds from (my own) cats...

Of course hummingbirds, sweet as they are, also feed on spiders. I wonder if anyone is around to save them as well

DJ
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[seraph]

[Uncle Krunkus]

Did you kill the spider so that it won't build anymore webs?

[nobody]

[varice]

[varice]

Some pictures of much happier hummingbirds at the sugar feeders on my back porch (looking toward the East)…

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[Antimon]

Lovely story and images!

Though I haven't experienced such a size for either bird or spider, I find both animals fascinating to study. Watching a spider set up the structure of its web, seeing a bird fly freely from rooftop to lamp post... Too bad yours can't get along.

/Stefan

[nobody]

Lovely photos! Not bad for a cell phone. The camera on my phone is total crap.

Not sure that's a banana spider, either. As far as large spiders go, I saw something that looked like the size of a small mouse but obviously not a mouse go down a hole in the side of a rail tie bordering my yard. It was HUGE and gave me a start. Haven't seen it since. No idea what it was.

There are spiders all over my yard. I recently discovered that there are small, blanched-looking spiders. They're probably harmless but they look creepy - as if they normally never live to see light at all.

And then there is the occasional pretty, small green and black spider.

[varice]

The spider appears to be a female Black and Yellow Argiope (Argiope aurantia). It closely resembles some of the pictures here:

http://www.spiderzrule.com/stand.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_aurantia

[blue hell]

Thanks for the links Varice, read them with interest - funny the difference in fauna between our continents. I was in the US once, even common birds looked (and sounded!) just that slightly bit different.

[Uncle Krunkus]

That was a leading question on my part, sorry. I was just trying to be devil's advocate, ie; I bet the spider was having a great day until you intervened.

BTW that looks alot like the orbweaver spiders we get around here. Same little zig-zag white bit on the web too. The orbweaver seems a bit more bulbous in the body though. Some bush tracks have web after web, strung across the track, with a big orbweaver hanging in the middle just waiting to get wrapped around your face!

[Scott Stites]

I have always been fascinated by spiders, though I don't think I'd enjoy seeing one munch on a hummingbird.

This week, in the restroom at work, I spotted a little gray wolf spider on the wall. I got closer to peer at it, and it (naturally) jumped. It didn't quite reach me, but went sailing down to the floor by the floorboard - but it didn't hit the floor. I knelt down to check out what happened and saw that it had landed in another tiny web, and this little dot of a spider, obviously overjoyed at such a big catch, came jetting out to check him over. The little spider then hurriedly circled his tiny web, seemingly shoring up the anchor strands for the action to come.

It then approached the wolf spider, darted in and...gloomp. The wolf spider grabbed it and proceeded to make a small snack of the smaller spider.

Well, it was more interesting than just going back to my desk....

Hey Andy, I've seen nature shows on some of those spiders y'all have in Oz. Here, the most dangerous (to people) are black widow and brown recluse. Neither one can hold a candle to the things I've heard about some of those Australian spider species. Care to share any spider stories?

[varice]

[Oskar]

Stories like these tell me I shouldn't be staying in the centre of town much longer. Great pics, great stories and great sentiments! Thanks a lot for sharing - all of you!

[Antimon]

[Uncle Krunkus]

Your black widow is very similar to our redback spider. Same kind of size, shiny black for the main colour, it's just that the redback has a red leaf shape down it's abdomen. Similar venom as well from what I can figure out. They can kill a small (under 3) child just due to simple kg/ml effect of the venom, but adults will "just" get a very nasty (often hospitalising) bite. They are slow, and live in dark moist spots.
When my sister and I were about 4(me)&6 we found a huge load of redbacks on the back of a sheet of corrugated iron in the backyard. We proceeded to collect about 12 of them in a glass jar which we then presented to our Mum. You can probably guess who nearly required hospitalisation that day!!! LOL!
Funnelweb spiders are the other nasty in Oz, and a completely different story. About the size of an OREO biscuit. Dark brown, with short fuzzy hair. If you get anywhere near one, they will rear up on their back legs and show off the two big shiny fangs under their eyes. Any closer, and they can jump, quite agressively, to deliver a bite. Easily kill anyone, including large people, if you don't get an anti-venom pretty quickly. A guy my dad worked with in the 60s-70s was the first person to be saved by the anti-venom. I've never seen one outside a glass jar and have no interest in meeting one face to face. Luckily, they actually keep to themselves, and unless you're doing some major gardening work near Sydney with no-gloves on, you're unlikely to cross paths with one.
Well, children, that's all Uncle Krunkus's spider stories for now.
I think it's time we all went off to bed.

BTW Got my Cortisone injection today. Initial effect was dramatic and good, I'm getting a bit of pain creeping back now though. (6 hrs later) I think I'm just a pain laden freak!! This thing is unstoppable!! Well,.... I'll see how it goes, can take a week for the full effects.

[nobody]

Years ago I found a colony of large, grey spiders with bulbous bodies and black hour-glass shapes on their underbellies. They were living in the utility closet off the balcony and they really freaked me out (I'm not normally freaked out by bugs of any kind). I went in there with a broom and some ammonia. I wasn't taking a chance that it was a black widow relative. I still have no idea what they were.

[varice]