Well grapple-fans.

We made it.

A new year and a half-promise of far more settled weather from the forecasters as the jetstream has pushed north for a while.

A friend on twitter (if they're reading this they'll know who they are) has given me a nice wildlife idea for this year.

Obviously I have swifts to get nesting and pond to get digging (amongst other things) but I'm going to try and record 365 different species (of animal) in the garden (or house) over the next twelve months (native or non-native for me though, unlike my friend's original idea of purely native creatures).

I won't document them all here (well.... I may at the end of the year) as I don't have that much time on my hands any more, what with the new addition to the family n all.

I will briefly mention the first species of the year I'll record though. As it came as a bit of a shock.

Quite a large shock in fact.

If there's anyone out there reading this who regularly visits this wildlife blog, they may remember that I discovered a couple of large, black, green-fanged Mediterranean tube-web spiders (Segestria florentina) living outside our back door this summer.

These large spiders do seem to have a rather nasty, aggressive reputation. The species even made headline news this year. They will bite if provoked hard, the bite may well smart a bit AND they move very quickly and CAN and DO jump. I think you'd have to provoke them very hard to get them to bite you but its probably fair to say that they are one species of spider that you probably wouldn't want in the house. On the wall outside the house, sure. But not inside the house.

I thought they were still there on the exterior wall of the house, to be honest.

No.

One little (or not so little as it happens) lady of the night had QUICKLY MOVED.

Moved INSIDE the house.

Crawled through a BEDROOM WINDOW (which, like many windows in our house, is often open).

And waited there, on the wall, in the dark, behind the PC, six eyes gleaming in the glow of the flickering modem.

I arose at silly-o-clock again and went to turn the computer on - turned the light on and saw her there suddenly - I knew immediately what she was (and where she'd come from).

Now... I may be fond of watching wildlife. My wife has berated me more than once for hatching moths in the spare room (or conservatory at this place). I've even created a swift nesting palace in our attic by diamond-drilling through the wall and I'm particularly fond of the (very cute) jumping spiders often found on ceilings in our houses over the years.

BUT.

I draw the line at LARGE spiders. Be those spiders "House spiders" or gurt big, black, green-fanged Mediterranean tube-web spiders. Especially those LARGE spiders that can ...... JUMP!

She had to go.

You know, if you shout (loudly) something short and sweet at a giant house spider (Tegenaria sp) it often stops stock still. Try it if you see one racing across your kitchen floor - shout "STOP!" at it - invariably it will. (I'll not bore you with the physiological reasons behind this (sensory hairs, vibrations, self-defence etc...)). These arachnids don't tend to speak English of course, so you could shout "BOO!" at it if you like, or "HEY!" - as long as you shout loudly and abruptly enough - they should stop their racing - enabling you to grab a pint glass and a piece of card with which to put them outside.

That's the KIND technique I use for large spiders.... a cup or pint glass placed over their legs (if they can fit - one nearly didn't once), and a piece of card slipped under them - and then you can carry them outside  (rather than stamping on them inside).

Its my "cup of kindness" approach. (You may remember that each "Auld Lang Syne" you sing from now on).

I took my "cup of kindness" to this large female Segestria florentina on the bedroom wall this morning (an empty, dry pint glass this time) - and knowing how quickly members of this species can move (REALLY quickly) I quickly placed the pint glass over her, 'gainst the wall.

And then she JUMPED.

She leaped (in the blink of an eye) from the wall and hit the back of the (horizontal) pint glass, without touching the sides. She leaped with such energy that she made quite a loud noise as she hit the back of the pint glass! I've never seen such a large spider (in the UK)jump at all - let alone that far.

I'll be honest... when she jumped, I did too!

By jumping to the back of the pint glass though, she had done me a favour and the surplus Christmas card was slipped across the pint glass opening and I took her outside to our back (south-facing) garden wall.

Well....

I've never heard of a Segestria florentina INSIDE someone's room. Outside on a south-facing wall, sure... but not INSIDE the smooth-walled bedroom?!

And I've never seen a large spider JUMP before (our larger British spiders just tend to run)

But with my "cup of kindness", this beautiful (if pretty scary-looking) spider becomes species #1 on my 365 species in a year list.

Happy new year all.

Sleep well tonight....

TBR