It has been mentioned many times in this blog that I do not travel without my camera on the passenger seat. It has been very handy even for a trip to the grocery store. Yesterday, while looking for a pair of falcons that have for the past two years called an old water tower in a local cemetery their home, I see this object on the roadway ahead of me moving in the center of the roadway. I stop, get out of the car with my camera in hand and walk behind this moving object until I see the largest spider that I have ever seen.
Then, I see this big F-150 or F-250 coming down the road at me. Waving my hands, the truck stops,puts down the window and before the lady could think me crazy, I pointed to the spider in front of her as I said that I was trying to rescue this spider to a tree before it got run over. She jumped out of the truck and with less caution than I would exercise was using her phone to take a picture at very close range. She said that she had not seen one like the one on the roadway in a while, gets in her truck and drives around the spider as I call out to her that her tires were clear.
I'm still walking behind this spider following it as long as it was on the roadway as another car approached. Doing the same hand wave as before, I got the car to stop before the tires rolled over the spider. This time, however, the spider moved under the car and was in front of the rear tire on the drivers side. I ask the guy if he could back up slowly about a foot. I used a tree branch about two feet long to get the spider to attack the stick as I moved the stick with the spider holding on away from the gentleman's car. He was surprised to see such a large spider. His passenger was trying to get him to put up the window because she didn't like spiders. I thanked the man and they drove on. With the spider on the stick I move him to a nearby tree and he readily climbes onto the tree trunk and moves to the fork in the main trunk where the spider stops and appeared to be well adjusted. With that rescue done, I'm on the way home. Here is a couple of images of what I discovered and is commonly called a Texas Tarantula, though I am trying to id the species more at the Texas A&M extension service for Texas critters.
Several weeks ago I say my first armadillo in a roadway that had been run over by a car. This year alone, spotted in nature, were a coyote, a bald eagle and a water snake, on her clutch of eggs that were washed into the lake during a heavy rain event;an American Muskrat, the armadillo and now, the tarantula. It's most likely because of the returning drought conditions that is bringing these rarely seen critters out in more populated areas.
Then, I see this big F-150 or F-250 coming down the road at me. Waving my hands, the truck stops,puts down the window and before the lady could think me crazy, I pointed to the spider in front of her as I said that I was trying to rescue this spider to a tree before it got run over. She jumped out of the truck and with less caution than I would exercise was using her phone to take a picture at very close range. She said that she had not seen one like the one on the roadway in a while, gets in her truck and drives around the spider as I call out to her that her tires were clear.
I'm still walking behind this spider following it as long as it was on the roadway as another car approached. Doing the same hand wave as before, I got the car to stop before the tires rolled over the spider. This time, however, the spider moved under the car and was in front of the rear tire on the drivers side. I ask the guy if he could back up slowly about a foot. I used a tree branch about two feet long to get the spider to attack the stick as I moved the stick with the spider holding on away from the gentleman's car. He was surprised to see such a large spider. His passenger was trying to get him to put up the window because she didn't like spiders. I thanked the man and they drove on. With the spider on the stick I move him to a nearby tree and he readily climbes onto the tree trunk and moves to the fork in the main trunk where the spider stops and appeared to be well adjusted. With that rescue done, I'm on the way home. Here is a couple of images of what I discovered and is commonly called a Texas Tarantula, though I am trying to id the species more at the Texas A&M extension service for Texas critters.
Several weeks ago I say my first armadillo in a roadway that had been run over by a car. This year alone, spotted in nature, were a coyote, a bald eagle and a water snake, on her clutch of eggs that were washed into the lake during a heavy rain event;an American Muskrat, the armadillo and now, the tarantula. It's most likely because of the returning drought conditions that is bringing these rarely seen critters out in more populated areas.
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| When first seen on roadway |
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| A Texas tarantula male. Males have two hooks on their front two legs and they are venomous. |
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