I just got back on the tail end of three weeks off which I have spent at my Dad's place on the island of Terceira, part of the Açores (Portuguese archipelago). While visiting and hanging around I did try to keep an eye out for the smaller wildlife (the island is teeming with cattle, fowl, sheep, etc.). Just sharing a few photos of some of the critters we encountered.
These yellow spiders, which I believe are Argiope bruennichi, get very large indeed and were very prolific all over the island. In my Dad's yard alone there were at least a dozen webs, most of them large adults. By the wood pile, there were five of them almost cohabitating. The webs all sharing common anchor points. Two of them even set up in parallel only inches from each other. Apart from those, we spotted a fancy green katydid of some sort and several small super-fast wall lizards.
These yellow spiders, which I believe are Argiope bruennichi, get very large indeed and were very prolific all over the island. In my Dad's yard alone there were at least a dozen webs, most of them large adults. By the wood pile, there were five of them almost cohabitating. The webs all sharing common anchor points. Two of them even set up in parallel only inches from each other. Apart from those, we spotted a fancy green katydid of some sort and several small super-fast wall lizards.
