Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 10:35:09 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: spider info requested MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all, I went over to Zion Rd. pond this morning to check out the waterfowl, where I found a few Hooded Mergansers, Bufflehead, Mallards, Ring-necked Ducks, and one lone A. Coot, along with a smattering of geese. Nothing terribly exciting. On the way over, however I saw a (new) sign along Zion Rd., behind what used to be the county landfill area, indicating a new hiking trail, the Blue Mash Nature Trail (or something to that affect. So before heading home I decided to check it out, and found it to be a nice albeit fairly short trail along overgrown fields which held good numbers of sparrows, etc. The trail leads to a previously inaccesible (except by tresspassing) pond, which I have always wanted to see. This morning it had 4 Green-winged Teal (2 pairs) and at least 5 pairs of Hooded Mergs, many of the males displaying, and some Buffleheads. A Red-tailed Hawk was flying about. On my way out, as I was getting in my van, I spied something bright orange on the ground right near the van. I was already sitting in the driver's seat, and my van is fairly high off the ground, so whatever it was really caught my eye. It was the color of an orange highway cone, really bright. I got back out and took a closer look, and found it was a spider. Rather large (perhaps 1.5-2 centimeters), but lethargic because it was still cold out. I picked it up on the end of a stick and gave it closer examination. I have never seen any spider like it. It legs were also orange, but sort of banded with brown, and its abdomen was large and odd shaped, with very bright markings of orange and brownish-white. Its legs were rather "hairy", but because it held them in close to its body due to the cold, I couldn't really judge its size, but it was rather large. It might have been some sort of crab spider, but I'm not certain, and I only have limited spider resources in my library. Any help IDing it would be appreciated. I thought of taking it home to try an ID it here, but I didn't want to remove it from its "home" territory, so I left it on a small weed in the parking lot, very near where I found it. This was my best sighting of the day! I also checked out the nursery where in past winters there have been roosting Long-eared Owls, and it has been about half plowed over and reseeded with grass. The nearby wet field held many White-crowned Sparrows along with the regulars. Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================