Comments on: My spiders identification project http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com It's a ragbag stuffed full of words and pictures - mainly about design, nature and nostalgia... Fri, 17 May 2013 06:32:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: squirrelbasket http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/my-picture-galleries/my-nature-pictures/my-spiders-identification-project/#comment-3644 Wed, 25 Jul 2012 05:57:08 +0000 http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/?page_id=6215#comment-3644 Thank you for your comments! I’m glad I’m not alone. Phobias are a funny thing – I wouldn’t say I am “scared” of spiders, I just cringe and shudder, but it’s totally illogical. Unless you are in the UK, I wonder what spiders you have? For example I could NOT live in Australia, where spiders are big and actually DANGEROUS!
Best wishes :)

]]> By: Beth http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/my-picture-galleries/my-nature-pictures/my-spiders-identification-project/#comment-3629 Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:50:54 +0000 http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/?page_id=6215#comment-3629 Thank you for this page!! I am a life-long arachnophobe too, but when I moved into my own apartment and had to deal with spiders on my own, I decided to take the high road and learned to capture and release. And like you – it spurred an intense curiosity in these amazing creatures. They still scare the crap out of me, but my intrigue outways my terror. :)

]]> By: squirrelbasket http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/my-picture-galleries/my-nature-pictures/my-spiders-identification-project/#comment-1602 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:32:39 +0000 http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/?page_id=6215#comment-1602 Excellent projects. Wish I could join you :) And I’m glad it’s for retired people as well as students. Maybe one day I’ll look for something similar in my own area.

I envy you your “limited number of species to identify” – even now I often see insects I have never seen before, and that’s just in my garden!
And talking of “use of native plants”, I wonder if you are familiar with my recently identified alien “gallant soldiers” plant, native to the Americas and used for various medical purposes.

Best wishes…

]]> By: B. Lea Cox (@leabird) http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/my-picture-galleries/my-nature-pictures/my-spiders-identification-project/#comment-1591 Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:20:40 +0000 http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/?page_id=6215#comment-1591 I love your spider investigation. Back in the 1990s, I decided to confront my fear of spiders and took a spider identification course. This was part of a biology summer field camp class offerings at the Sierra Nevada station of San Francisco State University, near Yuba Pass. Every summer, there are 1 week, 1 unit college credit, courses in field investigations, including spiders, bats, mushrooms, freshwater algae, flowers, birds, astronomy, geology, American Indian uses of native plants, etc. Here is a link to their 2011 offerings:
http://www.sfsu.edu/~sierra/Courses.html

Because the camp has been ongoing since the late 1980s, there is a wealth of knowledge accumulated about this unique area, and many field guides. Because there are a limited number of species to identify, and the guides and teachers to facilitate the learning, it is a great opportunity to gain confidence in these field studies. Many of the teachers are researchers at California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.

The classes spend the entire day in the field, then come back in the afternoon or early evening and spend time with microscopes. There are lectures and discussions, and it is an intense experience. There are a diverse group of people including young college students to retirees. Many teachers take these courses to get credit for their credentials.

People stay in tent cabins, and there is a dining hall that serves usually excellent food. People tend to repeat coming to these classes, year after year, so it builds friendships.

Early in the summer, Cornell Lab of Ornithology gives an intense bird recording workshop, and then the Nature Sound Society out of the SF Bay Area gives an annual weekend workshop in Nature Sound Recording, which is geared more toward recording the ambient sounds of different ecosystems, rather than focusing on single birds. This area is one of the few in the U.S. where there is enough silence to do decent recordings. There are very few planes flying.

Lea Cox

]]> By: squirrelbasket http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/my-picture-galleries/my-nature-pictures/my-spiders-identification-project/#comment-1162 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 05:43:07 +0000 http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/?page_id=6215#comment-1162 I’m very happy this is catching on. I’ve got one of my workmates doing it now, as well! And the other day someone accidentally brought a medium-sized spider into the office and when we spotted it, instead of killing it, we used it to scare somebody (as you do) and then put it somewhere safe. My colleague said don’t worry, it’ll eat the carpet mites…
I love your potatoes, by the way – they look SO healthy! :)

]]> By: Sara Hammond http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/my-picture-galleries/my-nature-pictures/my-spiders-identification-project/#comment-1161 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 03:28:33 +0000 http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/?page_id=6215#comment-1161 Inspirational. I saw a spider in the broccoli today and admired it, but didn’t even think to try to identify him. Maybe I will.

]]> By: squirrelbasket http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/my-picture-galleries/my-nature-pictures/my-spiders-identification-project/#comment-958 Sun, 22 May 2011 13:54:32 +0000 http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/?page_id=6215#comment-958 Just to say I think I now have identified the mystery spider – mainly because I saw another one in the garden today and photographed it. It made me realise it was a Linyphia triangularis, while the one I had labelled as a Linyphia was actually an Enoplognatha ovata or comb-footed cobweb weaver. So there we have it…

I also caught a snap of the nursery web spider when it moved quickly in a pot near where I was taking my pictures…

]]> By: squirrelbasket http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/my-picture-galleries/my-nature-pictures/my-spiders-identification-project/#comment-957 Sun, 22 May 2011 06:15:01 +0000 http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/?page_id=6215#comment-957 Thanks for your kind comments.
I think I started this spider project in autumn last year (not too far from Halloween), but only now have I made enough progress. I must remember to mention it again this October!
Funnily enough, I did consider the buzzing spider, from the picture on the identification chart I have, but dismissed it as I didn’t hear the thing buzz! Apparently it buzzes with its abdomen against a leaf.
I have considered it again now, but when I checked, I found the buzzing spider, Anyphaena accentuata, does not make a web, and there is one in my picture. It would have helped if I had looked more closely when I took the photo – but that was last year, before I had the ID chart.
Any other thoughts?
Best wishes…

]]> By: kjforce http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/my-picture-galleries/my-nature-pictures/my-spiders-identification-project/#comment-956 Sat, 21 May 2011 22:29:05 +0000 http://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/?page_id=6215#comment-956 Outstanding article..you are so creative.. ?This would have made a great write for ” Hallows Eve” known as Halloween in America..I am still itching and my feet are propped up. Believe I am by NO means a spider expert, but could it possibly be a “Buzzing spider ? or a Sac spider ( they love ivy leaves and loose bark)..I remember only those two from my childhood, while in Nannas’ garden.
sorry I couldn’t be of more help..Thank you for sharing your spider project, don’t know that I could have done that…eeeekkkkk…weedbychoice..kjforce

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