{"id":53031,"date":"2018-07-10T05:39:54","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T11:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=53031"},"modified":"2026-03-18T09:13:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T14:13:24","slug":"spiders-of-antelope-island-they-arent-so-creepy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/07\/10\/spiders-of-antelope-island-they-arent-so-creepy\/","title":{"rendered":"Spiders Of Antelope Island – They Aren’t So Creepy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year in August Antelope Island has a SpiderFest<\/span><\/a> where there are walks and talks about the spiders of that live on the island. I love photographing them and they really aren’t so creepy as they seem to be.<\/p>\n

This year the SpiderFest is on August 4th and I’m sure everyone who visits will have a great time and learn more about these eight-legged inhabitants of the island.<\/p>\n

\"WesternWestern Spotted Orbweaver resting in her web – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/320, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Birds are my passion and I photograph them more than anything else but I do love to aim my lens at the spiders that start to drape the island with their webs around July. The females are larger and thus are easily seen hanging around in their webs catching brine flies, moths, butterflies or whatever flies into their silken traps. They caught my eye on my first trip from Florida to visit Utah before I even moved here.<\/p>\n

The spiders I see most often are the Western Spotted Orbweavers, the spots they are named for can be seen in this photo on the spider’s abdomen.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale Western Spotted Orbweaver and friend – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/640, ISO 500, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

With my long lens I don’t have to get close to the spiders to photograph them but nice photos of these spiders can be taken with shorter lenses on DSLRs, point and shoot cameras or even cell phones. It’s not like they are going to fly off like my primary subjects, birds. I don’t even have to tell people where to find the spiders because they are virtually everywhere, even along the causeway before reaching the island.<\/p>\n

I wish everyone could visit the island at least once while the spiders are as highly visible as they are now.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Western Spotted Orbweaver photos and here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my insect and spider galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year in August Antelope Island has a SpiderFest where there are walks and talks about the spiders of that live on the island, I love photographing them and they really aren’t so creepy as they seem to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,1022,26,1174],"tags":[6633,4070,5918,2378,10243,5987,4156,3901,2381,5986,4293],"class_list":["post-53031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-davis-county-utah","category-utah","category-western-spotted-orbweaver","tag-antelope-island-spiderfest","tag-female","tag-females","tag-neoscona-oaxacensis","tag-orbweaver","tag-orbweavers","tag-resting","tag-spider","tag-spiders","tag-web","tag-western-spotted-orbweaver"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Western-spotted-orbweaver-female-mia-mcpherson-6667.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dNl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27037,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/08\/02\/the-antelope-island-spiders-an-important-part-of-the-food-web\/","url_meta":{"origin":53031,"position":0},"title":"Antelope Island Spiders – An Important Part of the Food Web","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This coming Saturday, August 8, 2015, is the date 0f the annual Spider Festival on Antelope Island State Park and there should be plenty of spiders to be seen, almost a bumper crop of them!","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Western Spotted Orbweaver with a bunch of captured Brine Flies, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, 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Antelope Island Spider Fest starts on August 2, 2021 and continues through August 7, 2021 this year.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Western Spotted Orbweaver in her web next to the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-spotted-orbweaver-and-web-mia-mcpherson-8398.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-spotted-orbweaver-and-web-mia-mcpherson-8398.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dark Female Western Spotted Orbweaver, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-spotted-orbweaver-mia-mcpherson-4651.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-spotted-orbweaver-mia-mcpherson-4651.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-spotted-orbweaver-mia-mcpherson-4651.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-spotted-orbweaver-mia-mcpherson-4651.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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They do crawl at times but I think they are beautiful creatures.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mabel Orchard Orbweaver and web, Sawgrass Lake Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mabel-Orchard-Orbweaver-mia-mcpherson-1370.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mabel-Orchard-Orbweaver-mia-mcpherson-1370.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mabel-Orchard-Orbweaver-mia-mcpherson-1370.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mabel-Orchard-Orbweaver-mia-mcpherson-1370.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":72070,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/07\/22\/focusing-on-the-spiders-of-antelope-island-state-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":53031,"position":5},"title":"Focusing On The Spiders Of Antelope Island State Park","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent some time yesterday morning focusing on photographing the spiders of Antelope Island State Park on the island and the causeway to it because this is a great time of the year to see them.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Western Spotted Orbweavers hanging in their webs, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-spotted-orbweaver-july-mia-mcpherson-8394.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-spotted-orbweaver-july-mia-mcpherson-8394.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-spotted-orbweaver-july-mia-mcpherson-8394.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/western-spotted-orbweaver-july-mia-mcpherson-8394.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}