It's not often that people get excited by spiders, but one particular species attracts admiring glances every autumn at RSPB Minsmere, and now it has been found for the time at North Warren. The species in question is a stunning black, white and yellow striped spider that has earned itself the perfectly apt English name of wasp spider.
Wasp spiders are relatively recent colonists on the Suffolk coast where they can be found in long grass from mid August. Their webs have a distinctive thick zigzag from top to bottom, and the spiders themselves are unmistakable.
The North Warren wardens discovered this spider on the grazing marsh on Thursday - the first time that one of them had ever seen the species. Sadly, it's location means that visitors will nto be able to see it, though the spider could easily be found elsewhere on the reserve. If you want to see one, they are relatively easy to find on the dunes at Minsmere, close to the sluice, where Jon Evans took this photo last year.