{"id":50071,"date":"2017-07-19T04:49:31","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T10:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=50071"},"modified":"2017-07-19T06:04:31","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T12:04:31","slug":"spiders-deer-and-phalaropes-on-antelope-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/19\/spiders-deer-and-phalaropes-on-antelope-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiders, Deer And Phalaropes On Antelope Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photographing large spiders on mule deer isn’t an everyday occurrence for me.<\/p>\n

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Birds were slow on Antelope Island yesterday morning so I spent some time photographing spiders near a drying pond. The island is crawling with\u00a0large orb weaver spiders this time of year and the opportunities with them for nature photographers are endless.<\/p>\n

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Many of the island’s orb weavers are quite handsome but not everyone appreciates having them around.<\/p>\n

I was concentrating on this\u00a0spider through my lens when I was seriously startled by a crashing sound coming from the tall cattails and phrags just a few feet away from my pickup. I was unaware there was a large\u00a0critter hiding in there and it apparently decided it wasn’t comfortable with the clicking sounds coming from our two cameras so it burst out of the reeds in a semi-panic, ran just a few feet away, and then turned around to give me a few profile shots.<\/p>\n

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It was a mule deer in disarray. Crashing through the reeds had covered the deer’s face with spider silk and the debris that had stuck to it. And sure enough, one of the spiders that had produced the silk\u00a0came along for the ride. The deer almost seems to be trying to focus its eyes\u00a0on the\u00a0spider in what was probably a cross-eyed sort of way.<\/p>\n

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A closer look at the same photo. This appears to be a\u00a0standoff with the spider daring the deer to make the first move.<\/p>\n

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There were actually two<\/em> spiders hitchhiking on the deer’s face – there’s another one under its left eye.<\/p>\n

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Other than this excitement there wasn’t much else\u00a0happening on the island so I headed for\u00a0home across the causeway\u00a0where another unique natural phenomenon awaited me. But first\u00a0a little background:<\/p>\n