Dawn's Dream

I've been trying to catch my Leroy, the argiope or zipper spider, spinning her web, and finally discovered that, like me, she has her best energy very, very early in the morning. Tuesday I had the pleasure of watching her go round and round, looking like she was measuring each new span with two of her (loooong) legs, and then pulling the exact length of silk to tack down. I wondered what my digital camera would be able to capture with its video capabilities - this little Sony SureShot takes great video! Look - after watching her do the round and round bit for a while yesterday morning, she began to make the zipper part of her web - AND I GOT IT ON TAPE! I can't rotate this video - it would be 100% perfect if you could give it a turn clockwise - she's actually working bottom to top in the web.
I feel so honored that she let me see this - check out the amount of silk pouring out of her for this heavy stripe - remarkable. I dreamed I was able to train all her babies and they'd pour all that silk out on command so I could see if I could twist it into yarn! Which would be quite a coup really, given my terror of these things. I can't wait to see her egg sac, but I could have nightmares already thinking about all those little spiders hatching in the spring1