As my previous blog showed, in the great web of life, spiders are pretty terrifying hunters...if you're an insect, that is.
If you are scared of spiders, I hope you can at least appreciate the valuable work they do munching their way through countless flies and gnats and other creepy-crawlies each year.
But spiders have plenty to be nervous of too, because there are creatures out there that specialise in hunting them down.
Here is one that came marauding through my garden today...
Scary, huh?
This Wren spent about five solid minutes working its way around and through and behind this trellis, which is wrapped in the bare stems of Honeysuckle and Hop.
I was absolutely thrilled - this was exactly why I put up trellis in the first place. Ideally I'd like a hedge there rather than a fence, but it wouldn't suit the neighbours. So instead my aim is to use trellis and climbing plants to smother my fences and create cover and food and hiding places for insects and spiders, and hence provide food for birds.(I have to say, this particular trellis looks rather lusher throughout the summer!).
And here was living proof that it was working. There certainly wouldn't have been any Wren there without the trellis.
I've been busy planting even more climbers this autumn, with the hope that within a couple of years my fences are as close to being hedges as they can possibly be. And my hope is that that will mean even more terrifying Spider Hunters in future.
I've never seen that either! As I always say, the garden is the best place to see things that you've never seen before :-)
This summer I watched a Great Tit take a Garden spider from its web, this was a first for me. The Great Tit flew towards the web with its legs stretched out in front like a bird of prey, it grabbed the spider in its claws and then flew backwards. The web billowed out before finally giving up and the Great tit tumbled through the air before righting it self and flying off.