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.