October 13, 2019

9:56am to 10:47am

  

As I approached my sit spot, I heard bugs chirping softly and birdsong. A few minutes into my observation, I saw a spider web that had two small red and black spiders. On closer inspection, I saw that their body was red and their legs were black. They were smaller than any spider I’ve ever seen. I took several pictures and even a video of them later on, before I left my sit spot. After I had been at my sit spot for about half an hour, I noticed that there were a lot more than just two spiders around me. I counted at least twenty of the tiny red spiders. To be honest, they were cute and intriguing. I also saw leaves from a tree to my right rustle. As I continued to watch, this happening a few minutes after I saw the first two spiders, I saw a small, brown bird making little hops at a low hanging branch that was almost touching the ground. After a few more tries, the bird hopped onto the branch and then took off. It had a medium-sized tail and a relatively small wingspan and I soon lost sight of it. I did not see as many ripples in the creek today, I only saw about ten or fifteen ripples caused by things hitting the surface of the water or organisms, compared to the constant ripples I had seen in previous visits. The birdsong and the chirping was a constant and sounded like what a person would listen to when trying to relax or fall asleep. It was not as loud as my previous times visiting. I also heard what sounded like a goose and saw a large bird through the trees, flying. Soon after, I saw a small group of small birds fly overhead.

I saw more branches move on the bush behind the tree with the vines that I am observing. It started high in the bush and then went to lower branches. I realized it was a small grey bird, that flew off as soon as I got a glimpse of it. I saw a few leaves falling and the ground was covered in leaves. Some of the clover-like plants have some white/light grey speckling on them. I also saw a squirrel move from tree to tree on the other side of the creek from where I sat. What grabbed my attention was the spiders as I had never seen them before and I wanted to know more about them.

And so, I decided that the invertebrate I would observe would be the spider, also in part because I could not find another invertebrate when searching and I knew there were many spiders to observe. At first, I wanted to observe the spiders I saw in the first web. However, I did not want to get too close to them so I looked for more near me. I soon found three that were right beside where I had placed the towel I sit on. I decided to observe those spiders. For the most part, they sat still, not moving from what I could see. That only created more questions as there was a small white insect with wings in the web next to the one I focused on most. The insect did not move so my thought is that it was either immobilized somehow or the spider already had eaten it. I do not know as much about spiders as I would like so I am unsure about its habits. I noticed in a part of the web closer to the ground there was another, smaller red spider. It also was still, even when a small beetle walked beneath the web. Could it have been the temperature, since it was 57 degrees F, that they weren’t moving. Could they have been nocturnal spiders and were just resting? When I looked up what it could be, I found the dwarf spider. It looks similar to how the spiders I saw looked. I asked for a second opinion from a family friend who loves spiders and knows a lot of random spider facts and observes spiders when she sees them. She confirmed my thought that they were likely dwarf spiders, which are relatively harmless to humans.

Carvin creek plays a significant role in the ecosystem at my sitspot. In my sit spot area are at least two sycamores and several other plants and trees. These all need water to survive. Water also serves as a habitat for many aquatic organisms, such as snails and fish. Without the water in the ecosystem provided by the creek, there would likely not be as much variety to the sit spot. There would likely also not be the sycamores.

My favorite part of visiting the sit spot this week was seeing the spiders. I saw a species I had never known existed and it made my day that I got to learn more. I look forward to hopefully seeing more of the spiders when I visit again, although it’ll likely be colder by then so I am not sure if they would still be out. I saw a lot more this time than I had the first time I went early in the morning.