Nature in our window

Kerry A. Thompson

When nature comes to your window, it's hard not to take an interest. This mama spider settled in earlier this summer, so we've avoided washing this window. (Well, to be honest, we haven't washed any of the windows this summer, but we'll chalk it up to wildlife conservation efforts.)

​I wish we had a camera that could take a detailed close-up picture of Mama S. and her brood, but I'll have to describe that she laid three egg sacs over the course of about a month. When we first noticed her, she had two. Then another smaller spider joined her for a few days of summer love and the third spider sac arrived. This picture shows the spider with her two unhatched egg sacs and the one egg sac that had opened. Tiny spiderlings emerged, making their way into the world.

Through our time together, we've watched her immobilize and devour prey, tend to her web, and, as a proud mama, touch her egg sacs regularly with a gentle leg to check on them. Here's a picture from Wikipedia that looks a little like the egg sac and spiderlings that hatched in our window.

​In recent years, I've tried to escort most bugs outside rather than killing them. It gets a little tedious because we have a lot of spiders who find their way inside, but having this closeup view of one season in a spider's life makes me even more resolved to continue escorting our indoor spiders to new homes outside, where they can continue the life cycles nature intends.

#sustainablegreenlife
#spiders
#nature