Early fall is big spider time!

I love this time of year in the garden. The grasses are all full, topped with fuzzies, and home to many noisy grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets.

It's also the time when the orb weavers and other big spiders show up. I love photographing big spiders!

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This one was actually below the Celosia I posted about yesterday. The next morning its web was on the next plant over. One of the things I like about these guys is their ability to appear "magically" one morning -- a web will occupy the space where nothing but air was the evening before. That also makes this the time of year to look where you're walking each morning. Nothing worse than spiderweb in the face first thing in the morning.

Spinnerets grasping the web.

The underside markings of this one look like a cartoon cat, or squirrel, or maybe a mouse. Big white eyes, little brown ears... Cute!

I don't know what species this is, but I will look it up on bugguide.net this weekend and edit this post or put it into a comment. If I can find it.

I  hope I can find more of these large arachnids before time runs out and the weather turns too cold.

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