Peggy Sitting.

A day off work to look after Peggy as our dog walker is on an away day. A few wanders out didnt turn up much on the patch. Nothing at all really. 50 Fumars were on the cliffs, 13 Oystercatchers in the fields, and thats about it.

This afternoon we were in Village Wood and I was eye level with some cracked bark on an Ash sapling, a sympton of ash die back disease.

As I watched, a fly about house fly sized, crept out of the crack. Wondering, I broke off a small bit of bark no bigger than a 50p piece and was surprised to see a tiny spider behind it. It looked like a brown crab spider but it fell off into the vegetaion before I could see it.

I came back a while later, armed with the camera to see if there was any more. I was pleased to find, on the next sapling, a Walnut Orbweb Spider! Quite a size, like a Garden Spider, but much flatter, crab like. It spooked me a bit as it reminded me of a louse or a flat fly. It was very difficult to get it to open up and spent its time tightly furled. Anyway, I took some pics and released it on its way. A new species for me. Maybe my 'crab spider' was an immature one of these?