Something a weeeeeee bit different today. Literally. š This little guy or gal was smaller than the palm of my hand.
Every fall, we start to see the little crawlies crossing roads, trails, random little places.
This link refers to southeastern Colorado, but we certainly have them in our southwestern corner, too.
I like to see the little critters – who doesn’t root for those looking for love? – but a little bit of distance is preferred. š
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
Dressed in their finest fur and on the move, looking for girls! We too enjoy seeing these guys every fall when they trundle across our land on a mission. Amazing creatures.
After all that traveling, the males usually come to a short end after finding their mate … but the females can live up to 40 years?! Can you imagine?! Amazing, indeed.
Dressed for Halloween in orange and black! Scary!
Ah, that’s right! I didn’t even make the orange-and-black connection! š
I love those guys. In the chaparral where I hiked in CA all the time they were everywhere in November out there blind with a 50% chance of finding luv’ meanwhile the tarantula hawks were busy preying on those poor spiders. I really loved the tarantulas and it was easy to tell those guys apart — the males were all black. But I guess if you’re blind as they are, color dimorphism is kind of a waste. They had it anyway. I haven’t seen any out here, but I presume they are. Many many many years ago I was in ABQ for the balloon festival. Afterward, I stopped outside Taos to give a friend/co-worker and her son a ride back to Denver. Her son had caught a tarantula and made him a little house out of a box.
I didn’t know they’re blind! Is that all tarantulas or the ones where you were in California? Cute story about the tarantula house!
I don’t know about all tarantulas, but no spider sees very well. Tarantulas mostly rely on their “hairs” to “see” I worked at a wilderness park in San Diego so I was really lucky to get to learn all kinds of obscure cool stuff.
You might enjoy this.
Cool info – thanks!
Well I squirm at spiders but appreciate them. Do you know what kind it is? Your description a little smaller than your palm still sounds like a pretty good size spider!
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It’s a tarantula. š
I used to see so many on the back roads in CO. When I was going to see patients
I always swerve to miss them! š