A Second Look--October 28, 2015

The remnants of Hurricane Patricia are coming today bringing with them a lot of rain. It's amazing to me that a system that started in the Pacific could make it all the way across the country over the varying topography and still have this much rain left in it. Weather and climate are such complex things, I'm not sure we'll ever totally understand them. Or at least that's how I felt after I took a class about them in college.

The leaves are at their peak now and color abounds. Such a beautiful sight everywhere you turn. Since dark is encroaching the day much earlier, I haven't had as much time when I'm at home to do Second Looks. In fact, I didn't go to the back 40 of the yard at all this week. However, I will share with you a few pictures on trees in the front part of the yard as they are showing their colors. There is about a week's range in the pictures and you can see how much the colors changed during that time.

Also, when we visited a local park on Sunday, I talked to the naturalist there about the curious-looking spider I showed you recently during another Second Look. With her help, we determined that is was a lattice orbweaver spider. Although the internet is very helpful with these questions, talking to a real person is even better.

Here are a few things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Female downy woodpecker.

Lattice orbweaver spider (Araneus thaddeus) The white thing on it's back is actually its abdomen. Once again, I've never seen anything like that.