Spiders

One of the more unpleasant features of my walks through the woods is continually running into large spiderwebs strung across the trail. I don't see them until my face contacts the web. Ugh!

It was very difficult to photograph, but this is the remains of a spiderweb on my glasses. Like I said above, they tend to be at face level.

Once in a while I see the web before I plow through it.

This seems to be the spider species making the webs. The spiky shell-like structure is the spider's abdomen. It is eating a flying insect of some sort that got trapped in the web. (I've tentatively identified this common spider as "Spined Micrathena", Micrathena gracilis.)

Another one of these spiders -- hanging on a thread after I destroyed its web.