Back from another break

If you don't like spiders, well, it's probably too late to avert your eyes.  Here's a marbled orb weaver I spotted on my first trip to Ijams with my new camera!  I absolutely love the coloration and patterning on these spiders.  They're also pretty large - this one was probably an inch across or better!  I'd really like to see the European color variant some day.

One problem with this spider is that because it's so big, it's really hard to get the entire thing in focus if you also want to get a close up!

This shot is way cool.  While shooting, the spider apparently finally realized I was there and started to skitter away up its web and back into the leaves.  If you look closely (maybe click on the image and zoom in), you can actually see the silk coming out of the spinnerets!