Swope flowers

There is a north-facing hill across oldham from RPG- it can be accessed from shelter house #7, and hosts a huge amount of spring blooms. I found Spring Beauties, Toothwart, Trout lilly and Rue Anenomes in white and pink- the trilliums and mayapples are also up, though they have only buds. The service berry is in full-bloom and the redbud is close behind. The ferns and columbine are also up- on the limestone boulders.
I submitted the hill and found a pile of rocks. I approached the pile in hopes of finding a snake or skink to shoot, but found nothing that moved. Instead I found a mass of thick, strong web. I knew that the web belonged to a widow and looked around for her hammock.
The web of a black widow spider is made of the thickest, strongest individual strands I know to exist in the area. The strands are strung tight and feel unusually sticky when they are touched. The web is massive and without any noticable pattern or organization. They can be large- up to several feet in diameter, but tend to be fairly dense. In every web-usually on the edge- there is a small, much more dense part that leads to a small, open cocoon for the spider. The spider hides in the cocoon, which is set in or under a rock or pile of leaves that give her shade, and darts out when she senses any of the right vibrations from her web.
I left the web alone and found her little home under a rock. She was cradled by the hammock-like structure and shot out when I moved the rock above her. Once she was on the rock, I lifted her with a stick and set her away from the web to take some photos.. I found an even younger one, too!