Another Argiope spider

But I cannot find the name or even a photo of this spider on-line.  I have the classic iNaturalist app which I don't use often, so I use poorly.  So far, the only information I have is Genus Argiope, which is probably correct.  But I know this is not a Yellow Garden spider as in the previous post.  It is similar, but definitely a different spider.  Check out the red medallion patch on the rear of its abdomen.  

There were two.  The first smaller than the one above.

The large size of this spider makes it a female; she knocked the smaller spider (also a female) away from the central part of the web

When the smaller spider tried to re-enter the web, she chased it out again.  The smaller spider was the only spider I saw at first.  It probably built the web.

Appreciate any feedback in the comments section from anyone who might know the common and the scientific name.

From NC State University Extension:  Male black and yellow 

garden spiders are remarkably smaller than females.

I copied the photo above from NC State Extension that describes the male black and yellow garden spider as tiny.  At first I didn't look at the photo closely; now I see, that is indeed a tiny male spider perched just over the round medallion on the female's rear abdomen.  The spider in the NC State extension photo appears the same as the Belle Isle spider I found.  This is the only matching photo I have found so far.

While the spider I photographed at Belle Isle is certainly different in appearance than the one I photographed at Devine Preserve, apparently they are all lumped into the genus Argiope and are called black and yellow garden spiders.  Of note, my Belle Isle spiders' web did not have the corkscrew appearing stabilimentum (shown in the photo above). Maybe its web was still being constructed. 

Yellow garden spider

I went with friends yesterday morning to Devine (Nature) Preserve in Washtenaw County.  Oak savanna forest (some very big oaks!) and meadows dominated by sweet Joe-pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum) and goldenrod (several kinds).  There is, apparently, a marshy area also, but this was inaccessible.  Cattails were visible, but it has been so hot and dry that the marshy part was likely quite dry.   

We saw several good things, but this may have been the main attraction for me.  My friends had seen many before. 

Yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) 

As is true for most species of spiders, females are larger than males.  I am just assuming that our spider was a female.  It was about two plus inches long from tip of front legs to hind legs.  My friend has created her own meadow on her property and has seen several of these in her meadow.  The "corkscrew appearing" web is called a stabilimentum and is unique to this spider.  The function is not fully known.  It may be so that birds and other creatures can see the web and avoid running into it. 

Apparently, in the right habitats this is a common spider, but it was my very first time seeing it.  The important thing to know about the yellow garden spider is that it is highly beneficial catching and eating several types of pests.  If you have one, or two or three, in your garden or meadow, leave them alone!  They are doing good work.  It is completely harmless to humans.  A truly stunning orb-weaver spider. 

Seeing this spider reminded me of the female Golden Silk orb-weaver spiders (Nephila clavipes) that I saw in Panama in 2016.  Male Golden Silk orb-weaver spiders were tiny in comparison.      

Female Golden Silk orb-weaver (Nephila clavipes). Enlarge the photo to see the web. 

I was also reminded of a relatively recent New Yorker book review by Kathryn Schulz titled An Arachnophobe Pays Homage to the Spider, February 10, 2025, in which she reviews the book The Lives of Spiders (Princeton), by Zimena Nelson.  If you are, like Kathryn Schulz, an arachnophobe (a very common affliction), or a arachnoid lover (yes, they do exist), you can pick this book up for a good price at a variety of on-line used bookstores.  Then, again, if you are an arachnoid lover you probably already have it.

I wouldn't say that I'm an arachnophobe but, occasionally, I've been known to step into meadows for a closer look at something.  I did that a couple of times during our Devine Preserve visit.  I would not like to look down and find a yellow garden spider with it's eight legs trying for a foothold on the front of my fleece or sweater - never mind some other area of my clothing!  But I am very happy that the yellow garden spider is amongst us and just trying to do its job.  It was thrilling to see.    

Personal anecdote: Things get all jumbled up

Recently I wrote two blog posts for 10,000 Birds.  After seeing the Terek Sandpiper in Finland on May 23rd, I wrote There's a Shorebird on the Roof.  Then, sometime around mid-July, I received my copy of the ABA birding magazine (Vol. 57, No. 4, July 2025) and was spellbound by Lost on the Frontier by Brad Meiklejohn (pages 30-45).  You can read the article with an ABA membership.  After seeing the Siberian Tit in Finland, I was deeply saddened and wrote Missing the Gray-headed Chickadee.  Not all birders are members of the ABA and 10,000 Birds is an international birding site.  I felt a personal urgency to get this news out.

After this is when things got all jumbled up.

On the morning of Friday, August 1st, I logged into the ABA Community site, and learned that a Terek Sandpiper had been seen on Buldir Island in the western Aleutians on July 21st by birder Nick Ramsey and his friends.  The photos he posted are beautiful.  I read his write-up and remember thinking, this is the way to see and enjoy a Terek Sandpiper.  After a busy day I capped it off with a documentary movie titled Folktales about Norway kids doing a gap year.  I liked the movie and, as I was driving home, I was thinking that I should email the details of this movie to our Finland/Norway guide, Anttu.  Then I remembered, no, he's from Finland - even though the movie takes place in Finnmark.  In the movie a couple of bird vocalizations could be heard here and there (I recognized a thrush's song) and one scene showed a Siberian Jay perched at the top of a conifer tree; however, it was not a movie about birds or birding.  I didn't email Anttu.  I slept pretty well that night, somewhat uncommon for me.  I was aware of some dreaming, but that's about it.

Finnmark county in Norway is shown in the bright green area.  We traveled in the Varanga Peninsula (circled) directly north of Lapland, Finland.  We saw our King Eider in Vadso Harbor (arrow).

Recently I have been having dreams about being lost somewhere and trying to get to some other place but I have also lost my phone.  So how will I ever get to where I need to be?  There is always a lot of fumbling around.  Everything remains unresolved.  These have been early morning dreams so I have been able to wake myself up from them.  I'm always relieved.  Thank God it was only a dream.  I look for my phone where I leave it each night before sleeping to make sure it's where it should be.

Early Saturday morning, August 2nd, I was semi-awake from 4:00 - 5:00 am, but then fell back to sleep.  Then I remember that I opened my eyes and the clock read 6:20.  I fell back to sleep again and began dreaming.  I dreamed that I was stopped at a gas station and was speaking with someone (it wasn't clear who) and I happened to glance over at a pond that was adjacent to the gas station.  I saw a male breeding plumaged King Eider paddling calmly next to a Mallard.  Oh my god, oh my god, still in my olden days thinking, I have to call someone.  Again a lot of fumbling around.  Who should I call?  I had no birders' numbers in my phone and I couldn't think of anyone's name.  I kept watching the little King Eider swim placidly along.  Wait, what am I thinking, I have the Discord app.  Oh, but I'll need a photo.  I began the process of trying to get a photo with my iPhone's terrible camera, reminding myself that it doesn't need to be a good photo, just recognizable.  As I was trying for the photo, I was also trying to think of my Discord password.  And so it went ... by this time I knew I was dreaming and forced myself to wake up.  My cat was staring at me.  Feed me, she said.  It was 8:00 am and the King Eider was gone.

Birds have hard lives

Today at Detroit International Wildlife Refuge located on Lake Erie again I was looking for Odonata.  I was on the walkway between two ponds; this year with an explosion of phragmites growing on both sides.  I heard a Killdeer and thought it was flying overhead, but it continued to call insistently and I saw it then on a large triangle of grass where the walkway meets the bike trail.  The Killdeer was quite riled up, calling and walking rapidly this way and that way - as they do - especially when the mate is on its nest or juveniles are nearby.  I did not see a mate or any juveniles accompanying it.  

Then, at the edge of the grass, on the asphalt bike trail I saw something that appeared mostly white.  It could have been a dropped piece of clothing, a crumpled bit of tissue, a white-footed mouse ... or a dead baby Killdeer.   

It had been dead for perhaps an hour or two?  It was still warm, but of course the asphalt was warm.  It was not crushed or otherwise damaged as if a cat or other predator had got it.  I wondered if a bike had hit it.  It was just a fuzzling.  Perhaps not even big enough to get out of the way on its still wobbly legs.  Lying on the asphalt as it did the parent bird could see it clearly.  I believe the parent was still calling to it, warning it and trying to protect its little fuzzling.      

At the edge of the bike trail I found an area of tall grass with shade that had a soft little pocket at its center.  I laid the fledgling Killdeer in the center and pulled the taller grass down and over the top.  It wasn't covered fully, but it was no longer visible on the bike path either. Whether this calmed or fooled the parent bird, I don't know.    

My experience with observing death is that people, perhaps not all but many, will just shrug and say that death is part of life.  Not just with animal death, with human death also.  True enough, this isn't wrong.   But death, even human death, is also becoming less and less honored. A shrug of the shoulders.  Holding this tiny creature in my hand and thinking about what to do for it and for its distressed parent, I wanted to honor the sadness and misfortune of its unnecessary death.  

I was reminded of an experience in Norway.  The van was traveling on a two lane road that traversed vast areas of tundra.  Ahead on the road we saw a white clump.  There were only two possibilities for what the white clump could be - both ptarmigan.  Our guide stopped the van, got out and walked to the clump.  He held up the dead body of a Rock Ptarmigan.  Having passed a dead Willow Ptarmigan earlier, we knew his feelings - "drivers are careless, they don't pay attention, they don't slow down" - and then, to our collective groans from inside the van, he gave the ptarmigan an inelegant heave and threw it back out on the tundra.  On the tundra the ptarmigan would not continue to be run over by vehicle tires and end up a squished blob with feathers blowing in the wind.  On the tundra it would at least be someplace where another animal might find it and make it a meal.  On the tundra it was someplace where it had once lived.  Both ptarmigans were dead at the peak of their breeding season, on the cusp of bringing new life into the world.  

Anthropomorphic?  Probably, but I'm okay with that.

Moving on

How do I move on from writing and editing my Finland and Norway trip posts?  To tell the truth, I'm happy that I completed my project, but I always feel sadness when something I enjoyed so much is finished.  Changing my blog title photo is a good start.   

I only know one other way.  That is, to get back out in the field.  I didn't choose the best of days, overcast skies and threats of rain proved to be true for this particular day.  Still, I went to Crosswinds Marsh in the hopes of finding - well, anything; but my focus was on dragonflies.  Overcast skies are not the best weather for odes, but I did see a few things.  I also got the photo of the perched Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus), one of my favorite birds to photograph - somehow I never tire of it - to switch out my blog title page.  Otherwise, overall I didn't see much, but I did find and photograph a few other things.  Back to business as usual.  

Can anyone guess what this tiny bottle brush is?

Milkweed tussock tiger moth (Euchaetes egle) caterpillar

A really good name for this beautiful caterpillar.

The stem the caterpillar is traversing is that of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).

Incidentally, the hairs on this caterpillar are not poisonous or toxic, but they can cause irritation of the skin if handled.  My guess is that birds keep their distance!

Above:  Juvenile Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis)

Unexpected to see the juvenile Rough-wing lined up along the boardwalk railing with all of the juvenile Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica), now fledged from their nests beneath the eves of the cabana.

Above and below:  *Female Saffron-winged Meadowhawk (Sympetrum costiferum)

The Saffron-winged Meadowhawk is a new dragonfly for me (see addendum below) and this is always exciting.  It's hard for me to find a new species of dragonfly.  I don't get to travel to enough new places and new habitats, so my luck rests with finding a new species at my typical haunts.  Possibly three other Sympetrum species were also present in the same area today.  I don't have confidence netting dragonflies, but today I think I would have been successful.  Unfortunately, I didn't take my net along.  IDs of Cherry-faced, Ruby and White-faced meadowhawks will not be accepted if they have not been examined in the hand.

Finally, I saw this tiny, 1 inch, new damselfly trapped in a spider web along the boardwalk and thought it was dead.  I released it from the web and its wings flicked a little.  Soon it was crawling all over my hand and occasionally trying out its wings.  I had to take the photos with my iPhone's awful camera.  I have no idea what it is, but will go out on a limb and say it's a Skimming Bluet (Enallagma geminatum).  Skimming Bluets are common at the edges of the water of Crosswinds Marsh, it was very small and appeared as if it would mature into a black-type bluet.  My second guess is Orange Bluet (E. signatum), although I've never seen one at Crosswinds Marsh.  No reason they can't be there.

  Afterthought:  Could also be an Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis).

Not a bad afternoon.

Addendum 07/28/2025

* My identification of the Saffron-winged Meadowhawk was disputed and a second opinion held up the dispute.  I've retracted this from the on-line site where I document the Odonata that I see in the field.  It is now a Sympetrum sp.  As with many of the Sympetrum sp., the Saffron-winged is a dragonfly that needs to be netted and viewed in the hand for proper identification.  This is certainly not a first for me.