Spider

When I walk to work at Innovation Place I usually go by the pond to see the flowers and whatever else might be around. I happened to look down at some water lilies and caught a glimpse of a very large spider. But it disappeared and although there didn't seem to be anywhere to hide, I couldn't find it. (From what I found out later, it might actually have been hiding underwater.)

The weather was nice so I ate my lunch by the pond. I went back to look for the spider, moving more slowly to not scare it away this time. Sure enough it was back in roughly the same spot. It's one of the largest spiders I've seen in Saskatchewan, the body was about an inch long, and it was probably over two inches across including the legs.



Here's a closeup of that photo:



And another angle:



I stopped by again on my way home and it was still there. You can see its eight eyes. Most spiders have eight eyes (although not all) and yet they often don't see very well, except for the hunting ones.



On the water you can see several dragonfly wings. I wonder if it's been catching the dragonflies that make the mistake of landing on this water lily.

From my Audubon Insects and Spiders app, I would say this is a six-spotted fishing spider. It hangs around water and water plants and will even dive to catch its prey.

As I was crouched beside the pond taking photos of the spider, a few feet away there was a photographer shooting a wedding party. Personally, I'd rather photograph spiders than weddings, which is why it's a good thing I'm not trying to make a living from photography :-)

I recalled taking a photo of a spider last year near here. It was also in July, and also on the water lilies. It looks like the same kind, but the current one is much "fatter" - maybe getting ready to lay eggs?

These were taken with the little RX100. It does quite well at macro shots, except that it will only focus close with the zoom at its most wide angle. Which means you have to get really close! I was afraid the camera would scare it away, but I moved slowly and even though the end of the lens was only a couple of inches away, it didn't move.