Sunday afternoon we decided to put the canoe in the water and head down to camp. Just as we arrived at the public beach we heard the first thunder!
We pressed on anyway and made it about half way down the lake before we decided that we had better sit things out on the shore. We spent a half hour or so under a hemlock on the shore watching and listening to the storm which was mostly to the west of us. There was only a couple of brief sprinkles where we were sitting and we barely got wet sitting snug under our hemlock.
When the storm had passed we continued on down the lake which we now had to ourselves… literally!
Joan headed out for a paddle in the kayak and I headed out to stalk odes along the lake shore in nice light. The only odes about were variable (or violet) dancers which are very common along the lake for most of the summer.
At one point my “spotter-in-chief” (i.e. Joan), who was a bit farther down the lake than I had made it, called out that there was a damselfly in a spider web. I headed on over to said location post haste.
Upon my arrival I found two variable dancers (a male and female) entangled in the web. The spider (a comb-clawed spider, I think) was making quick work of the male but photography was impossible as the gyrations of the female were causing the entire web to move violently.
I watched as the spider moved to the female and, I assume, bit her. It took maybe a minute for the spider venom to work and the web became still. The spider went back to trussing up the male and then returned to the female to do likewise.
At this point the spider retreated to a hiding spot in a nearby, curled up leaf. I waited ten minutes or so hoping that the spider would make a reappearance but the wait was in vain.
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