wrenaissance's Favorites

Photo 1:
Why Yes, I Did Steal The Bread Heel When You Weren't Looking
The only time my birds get any bread is when I finish off a loaf of bread, then they get one heel pinched up. I laid the heel down on the brick wall while I filled feeders with bird seed. Went to get the heel & it was gone. Looked on the ground on both sides of the wall & nothing. Looked up and saw this. Went & got my camera.
Photo 2:
Ha Ha, You Can't Get Me
I swear the little thief was laughing at me. It was high up in my tree right over my head.

Photo 3:
Imma Just Stay Here & Eat The Whole Thing
Darn squirrel stayed there and ate the whole thing. No bread crumbs for the jays & sparrows that day.

Finally sussed out ( w/ the knowledge of @dpom ) that when you see them "spy-hopping" like this, they are actually napping/sleeping in this position. Saw a good 7 doing this....

A scrappy expanse of silky refuges and capture webs littered with body parts of previous victims. When preferred prey is entangled, the female spiders emerge from their 'nests' and overpower it by grabbing its extremities. In this case, a wasp https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319446.
Presumably they inject venom because after a minute or so the prey stops struggling. Then they snip it out of the web and carry it into one of several 'nests' or refuges.
Unwanted prey, often beetles (see https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319435 ) are also killed but sometimes left in the web, uneaten. Ants, in this case, Maranoplus ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9319390 )scavenge around the periphery of the webs, feasting on unwanted beetles or other left-overs.

Added to my new (public) project, Wildlife Eating People Food:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/wildlife-eating-people-food

Eating House Recipe-brand saltine crackers it found on a restaurant deck.