Pic(k) of the Week: Train approaches bridge

Ripped from the headlines: a CSX freight train, carrying coal.

Photo taken from an overpass on the pedestrian South Peachtree Creek Trail, in Mason Mill Park, DeKalb County, Georgia, USA.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Dead in fen

Even decaying and solitary, the dead tree can seem reborn when kissed by morning sun and mist.

Here, the headwaters of tiny Cecilia Creek meander into a marshy fen, that a wag once called Frog Bog. But, it's late autumn: the frogs are hibernating.

Legacy Park in Decatur, Georgia, USA. 20 November 2022.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Close encounters of the arachnid kind

A Jorō near-miss (in Legacy Park: Decatur, Georgia, USA, 12 November 2022).

It was a foggy early morning on the forest trail. I didn't see the expansive web —or its spinster— until I was about to run into it. I quickly ducked.

Backlit, the web might not have been visible in a photo and the spider, merely a silhouette. So, I popped up the in-camera flash. Not expecting this situation, I wasn't carrying a diffuser and the image might be a bit hot. Nonetheless, the arachnid appears well-limned in all her colorful glory.

As to the arachnid...

Trichonephila clavata —also known as the Jorō spider (ジョロウグモ)— is a member of the Trichonephila genus. The spider can be found throughout Japan (except Hokkaidō), Korea, Taiwan, and China. The spider is also an introduced species in North America —first spotted, in 2013, in northeast Georgia and northwest / upstate South Carolina. It is believed that the species will become naturalized over much of the eastern seaboard of the United States due to its relative imperviousness to the cold.

The adult female's body size is 2/3 to 1 inch (17–25 mm), while the male's is 1/4 to 2/5 inches (7–10 mm). The adult female individual has stripes of yellow and dark blue, with red toward the rear of the abdomen. The web of females may reach several meters in length. In sunlight, the yellow threads appear to be a rich gold color. In autumn, the smaller males may be seen in the webs for copulating. After mating, the female spins an egg sack on a tree, laying 400 to 1,500 eggs in one sack. Her lifecycle ends by late autumn or early winter with the death of the spider. The next generation emerges in spring.

Although the spider is not aggressive, it will bite to protect itself. The bite is considered painful, but not life-threatening.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Little Red Riding Hoods

Little Red Riding Hoods.
Seeing double.

Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 16 February 2020.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Morning mist on the beach

On the beach,

It's a morning sun,

Refulgent through cloud and ocean spray,

Like a beacon limning gloom.

St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA.
30 October 2022 (9:19 am EDT).

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