FALSE BLACK WIDOW SPIDER at Star Castle!

Got a total surprise when lifting up plastic and finding this FALSE BLACK WIDOW underneath at Star Castle. Ain't she a beauty!

  At 17.30, Martin, Richie, Higgo and I, arranged to meet at Porth Hellick and hoped we would see the 2 Long-eared Owl just before dark that have been in the area for the last month. A quick look at the pool produced only a single fem Wigeon and a pair of Teal. We just caught a glimpse of a Peregrine and when we reached the Salkee fields, a Woodcock flew overhead. We decided to look from the corner of one of the fields next to the main path. I moved to the opposite corner and started scanning. With in ten minutes, looking down towards Porth Hellick, I caught sight of an owl flying over the bushes. I shouted to the others, but when I looked again, it had disappeared! It was very pale and I strongly suspected it was a Short-eared Owl! It could not of gone far and while scanning, I picked it up perched on a stump. It was almost dark and some way off. Martin and I got closer and sure enough it was a Short-eared Owl!
 No LEO'S, however, it was well worth it and if the weathers good tomorrow, we'll all try again.

Short-eared Owl at Porth Hellick. As you can see, it was almost dark when I found this. This was taken two fields away!

I've been looking for one of these everywhere for a long time. Do ya think my van will go through that gap, if I open that gate? If it don't Higgo, you can always ram the gate down!? Oh, never thought of that!

Fem Wigeon at Porth Hellick

 Before all this, this afternoon I scanned between Annet and Samson from Star Castle and got an imm/fem Common Scoter, 5 Razorbill and 12 Great Northern Diver.   


  At work, I went looking for spiders and found 4 species in all. The best of the lot was a FALSE BLACK WIDOW, which I found in the Polly tunnel. Martin told me that there is only one Scilly record, as far as he knows, but there probably a lot more common on the island than we think.

FALSE BLACK WIDOW

Nursery Web Spider

Amaurobius fenestralis? I could be proved wrong

 I'm going to try and ID all these tonight. If you know what species of spider they are and the fungi, then please let me know? Any help would be really appreciated.