Nature's Kindergarten

 *Look away if you are afraid of tiny crawling creatures!*

Yesterday, Big Man came in after putting some garbage into the trash can.

"You have to look outside! Little spiders all over the trash can!"

Look at them, all those baby spiders, aren't they the cutest! They were all crawling there but also walking away from eachother. I think they have been brought there by mommy spider to go out into the wild.

These kind of sights are so much fun! Looking at nature, and really marvel all that happens in a normal city backyard.

After a bit of Googling I found out they are tiny European garden spiders (Kruisspin, Araneus diadematus).

A bit of a surprise because an adult European garden spider looks like this:

 

The spiderlings are yellow because they live on yolk for the first 7-10 days. After that time they will hunt for food. Their nest was probably shaken and stirred and they came out of the cocoon. But where was that cocoon? Not on the trash can itself. I have never noticed them!

The little ones already have dispersed themselves. According to Wikipedia they climb in the highest plants, spin a long thread and let the wind carry them wherever it may take them. I really hope some of them will stay in the garden, I really think they are beautiful on Autumn mornings with a bit of dew on their webs....

Isn't Nature marvelous?