A spider I happened to notice a while back while out and about. Its markings and size caught my eye, as it was very different from the spiders I typically see around here. I doubt they are rare, but it was new to me and I wanted to get a close up picture. It might not look particularly close, but it's a phone camera with no optical zoom. I was only a couple of inches from the subject and didn't want to disturb them.
I love how they're called "Common Garden Spider", but I've only ever seen one in my life. The one I saw was huge compared with other spiders in my area, and was sitting in the center of a giant web. When I walked up to look at it a bit closer, it started to undulate it's body causing the web to shake and flex like a vertical trampoline. I've never seen any thing like that in my life, it was quiet a surprise!
Ooh that's really cool! I guess in some areas they are more abundant, but at least we got to spot one. Sadly didn't get to see a web myself, do you happen to remember what it looked like?
I sure do, I won't forget, it scared the shit out of me! They're considered orb weavers, so they weave those flat vertically oriented webs with circles going out radially. The center where the spider sits had a zig zag pattern of webbing going vertically.
Here's a video of the threat display (I didn't take this video, I was just thrilled I found a video of the undulating)
Garden Spider Threat Display
Garden Spider Web with Zig Zag
That's impressive they're able to shake like that, that'd freak me out too if I didn't know it was gonna happen! Very cool web design as well, thank you for taking the time to find those visuals!
Glad to share!