Video clip of a large female garden spider found in Shelby Farms Park.

I noticed the egg sac before I saw the spider, but this video shows the great coloring of this protective mother spider protecting what could be 200 or more eggs.

Waking at 9:00 a.m. I knew right away that I’d missed the mark, beginning later than intended. Taking inventory of my gear, Starbucks drive-thru, and a quick stop for energy bars and Gatorade burned another hour. I was finally on my way to the trail, my patience the only obstacle to my success.

Humphrey’s Blvd runs along the South of the Wolf River woods that make up the Natural Area, and as I puttered along, I saw in the distance the flashing blue lights of a Germantown Police car. A bicyclist coming toward me glanced back to get another look at the scene through which he’d just ridden, a tip to me that it was probably not another traffic stop.

The passenger side of the patrol car stood open. The female officer faced the woods, shotgun in hand, while across the street a pair of officers watched over a handcuffed man seated on a bench.
The situation was clearly not resolved. The thing that bothered me was that the armed officer was searching for that resolution in the same stretch of woods I would soon explore on foot. But, I told myself, I’ll be on the other side of the Wolf River and I’ll be fine.

An average Saturday morning would find the trail crawling with joggers, walkers, bikers and other various folks enjoying the outdoors. The Lucius Burch Natural Area is a part of Shelby Farms, the largest urban park in the U.S., and one of the great escapes in an otherwise complicated city. On Saturday, however, the weather was overcast and the ground muddied by heavy rains over the past 24 hours. The small parking lot at the head of the trail was nearly empty. I parked next to a small side trail that led under Germantown Parkway. Glad that the rain was holding off, I plugged in my iPhone, pulled up the 60 Minutes podcast, and entered the trail.

I had hardly been there 10 minutes and taken less than 5 pictures when the man appeared from around a bend in the trail. He was large, nearly 250 lbs, had a shaved head and wore an orange hiking vest with lots of small pockets. Sweat soaked his t-shirt and shorts. He looked straight at me and slowed to a cautious walk. I looked at him briefly then returned to my search for insects, making sure to keep him in my peripheral vision.

It took maybe 30 seconds for the man to cover the 50 yards between us, and as he walked behind me I turned to say “Hey, what’s up?”, my normal greeting to the average stranger whose path crossed mine. Previous to today, it was more my way to tell them that I was not a threat, as I am usually the one who looks out of place while the other person rides or jogs along the trail. It’s not usually obvious that my slow ambling has a purpose at all. It takes time to find camouflaged insects in the tall grass and plants that line the thin trails, and I usually have to step aside to give the other person enough room to proceed.

The man acknowleged my greeting by saying “hello”, but he looked at me for an extra beat and that worried me. Most of the people I had met on the trail were far more interested in continuing on their way than communicating with me. What worried me about this guy was that there was no obvious reason for him to be there. Had he worn a backpack, carried a camera, rode a bike, worn jogging shoes or any number of other things relative to trail exploring, perhaps my suspicions would not have grown. However, my guard was quickly up, making it nearly impossible for me to concentrate.

The man continued down the trail toward the parking lot, and although there were no other cars there for him to use to exit the park, I was glad he was gone. When he returned a minute later all my alarms went off. This time, as he walked past me, I turned to keep him in my sight and as he reached a point nearly 20 feet down the trail, he turned back to look at me once again. And although he once again continued down the trail, my morning had been ruined. I walked toward the car as my mind raced to come up with a list of options.

Option 1:
Why is this guy here? He’s harmless, yet still acting suspiciously
What will happen next? Nothing
Outcome? I will continue to be suspicious and go home

Option 2
Why is this guy here? He’s cruising for men and is waiting for me to give some secret signal.
What will happen next? I will not give the signal
Outcome? I continue to be creeped out and go home

Option 3
Why is this guy here? He’s being pursued by the armed police from earlier.
What will happen next? He will try to fight me for my car keys.
Outcome? I win the fight and am now sharing the trail with my freshly-defeated foe, so I go home

Option 4
Why is this guy here? He’s being pursued by the armed police from earlier.
What will happen next? He will try to fight me for my car keys.
Outcome? I lose the fight and am now dead

So, since I can think of no option that results in my being able to continue my field trip, I cut to the chase and went home.

As it turned out, the man I encountered was not being pursued by the police, as evidenced by this story.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/sep/19/one-captured-two-large-after-germantown-robbery/

Walking slowly down the thin trail that wound through the tall grass, I noticed a light-colored shape hanging from the branch of a short tree. The shape was out of place, first because it was not the color or shape of the leaves on the tree and second because it was moving.

The tree was about 10 feet off the trail, meaning I would have to leave the dirt path and take a couple of steps into the waist-high grass where, in my mind, lurks the stuff of nightmares. My worst fear when on these outings is stepping on a hornet’s nest hidden underground and being stung repeatedly until anaphalaxis takes me to my maker. Luckily, I carry a walking stick, so I gave the grass a quick poke or two and trudged forward.

Upon closer inspection, I thought it was an odd mating ritual where one grasshopper links the end of it’s abdomen to another’s mid-abdomen as in adult dragonflies. However, when I moved to the side, it was obvious that this was a molting in progress.

The cool thing about a molting-in-progress is that the grasshopper is kind of groggy and can’t really escape. The freshly molted wings are rubbery and limp. And besides, until the shedding is complete, the grasshopper is sort of trapped there. That leaves plenty of time for a clumsy, sweating photographer to position the camera a take a few stills and a short video clip. Otherwise, these photos would not have been possible.

I found this aggregate of caterpillars defoliating a short tree in Shelby Farms Park. It took a while for me to properly identify them. It was only then that I learned about their alarm position where they raise both their head and tail.

This katydid was singing up a storm during my field trip today. This video captures its song.

I noticed the egg sac before I saw the spider, but this video shows the great coloring of this protective mother spider protecting what could be 200 or more eggs.

I came across this grasshopper molting on the limb of a small tree. On a nearby limb was a praying mantis. This is a short video of that scene.

Location
Place: Shelby Farms Park – Memphis, TN
Date: August 30, 2009
Time: Mid-day
Weather: 82 degrees F, Sunny

Size (Approximate)
Length: 1.5 inch
Width: 3/8 inch body
Height: 1/4 inch body

Taxonomy
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Superfamily: Lycosoidea
Family: Oxyopidae

Story
I was out taking pictures of insects yesterday in Shelby Farms Park near my home when I spotted a bee hanging lifeless in an area of thick grass along a gravel pathway. A second later I was shocked to find that the bee had been grabbed by this large green lynx spider. It really surprised me because the spider’s camouflage and color matching to its environment was so exact that all I saw was the bee. I must have taken a dozen shots of the spider hanging on to the bee. Even when I moved aside a blade or two of grass to get a clearer shot, the spider did not move at all. It was really an amazing thing to see. This is the first green lynx spider I’ve seen in real life, even though it was one of the first realistic flies I tied.