recently i discovered a pile of bird poo on a pathway, naturally that meant a bird nest was above and i should avoid walking directly beneath it. i looked up and i could see 4 little heads peering at me over the side of the nest. so damn cute. mum and dad came shortly after i wandered far away enough and i saw that it was a nest of swallows. uber damn cute.
as the pile of poo grew larger i got to see the heads get featherier and soon enough the littluns started venturing out save one. by this stage i had found another vantage point inside so as not to disturb the birds too much. one day as i stood for a moment and watched this last baby waiting for some grub to come flying home in the form of a parent feeding, i noticed some movement not 20 cm away. my attention turned to this movement and i noticed it was a black house spider. being a lover of all creatures i marvelled at its lovely web and such but then noticed it did something interesting. it looked like it stuck its bum end out of the web and did what looked like to be a poo. a stark white poo.
i’d never considered spiders doing poos before. ever. i know fish, cats, dogs, lizards, birds, turtles, caterpillars, snails etc do. i’ve seen them. but spiders? now i am aware that it may have been discarding of last night’s dinner wrapped up in fine silk but it totally looked like it was doing what those little birds had done these past few weeks. stuck its bum out and let it go.
unfortunately i wasn’t in a position to examine the offerings as i was inside a building, but had i been outside - i TOTALLY would have inspected it.
