The other afternoon while glancing out of the back bedroom window, my attention was caught by a short-tailed field vole running back and forth along the top of the bank. Suddenly, I noticed a beautiful spider’s web on a buddleia. It stretched hugely between the branches. I love cobwebs; I find them not only intricate, but also fascinating. Just imagine not only being able to make a web, but also to produce the silk to do so yourself.
As I admired the web, I noticed sitting in the top right-hand corner, its maker. I watched hoping a butterfly would not get trapped, as I would have to go outside to rescue it. All of a sudden, the whole web vibrated as a second spider ran on to it from below; instantly the first spider ran out and down toward the newcomer. She rushed at him until he backed off. To make it easier I shall refer to the first spider as she/her and the second spider as he.
This happened several times and by now I was intrigued. I felt he obviously wanted to make contact, but her movements were aggressive while his were tentative and nervous. I wondered if he was courting her, having read that this act could result in the female devouring the male, I decided to stay watching. After twenty minutes of his slow approaches, followed quickly by his withdrawals, he lost courage altogether and left the scene.
From the kitchen window, I watched dragonflies hawking insects, whirring helicopter-like across the lawn. One particular large brown dragonfly, with wings outstretched and its length from nose to tail, reminded me of a wren, both in size and color.
I have been lucky enough to spot red kites in this area: one above Ware, another over the A10, the fourth one over the M11, and the best of all, the third one, was right over my own garden.
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