Macro Monday {Baby Garden Spiders}

Foreword: My current camera is dead. It was slowly dying and I have been struggling with it for months. It finally just died this past Saturday (April 18). Since it is so old, Dan and I decided that it would not be worth the cost of getting it fixed (refurbished). So, it will not be revived. May it rest forever in peace.

Dan and I went comparison and price shopping for a new camera and we both settled upon one. The manufacturer happened to have a promotion going on and I found a site that sold the camera with the promotion (sale) along with free accessories that I have wanted but never purchased! I had mad money I have been holding onto; but, Dan said that it'd be an anniversary present. So, with his approval, I purchased the camera and it should arrive this Wednesday (April 22).

In the meantime, I am posting some of my less than stellar pictures taken with my macro lens. (I was extremely nervous taking the pictures,) I also think they are very interesting. Of course, some people who have phobias may disagree. Ha!

Enjoy.

I've been keeping an eye on Charlotte's egg sacs waiting for her babies to emerge. There was another garden spider (called the Banded Garden Spider) who also laid an egg sac that is vastly different from Charlotte. I have been keeping an eye on that one also. Well, sometime early on April 9th, the babies came flooding out of their egg sac.

Thousands of babies. The blob on the upper right corner is the egg sac.

Cropped image of the first picture.

A closer look at the unusual egg sac.

It was my understanding that garden spider babies usually hang around for approximately 24 hours and disappear (balloon). But, these babies did not.

They formed into small clusters about 24 hours later and hung around for approximately two days and finally took off. Note: I had to use the flash for this picture because it was an extremely cloudy day.

Cropped image of previous picture.

The babies are obviously bigger and not so transparent.

I was sad that I did not witness the ballooning process which most likely occurred in the night. I was also very glad they were gone because they were making me extremely nervous! Ha!