![\"Spiderlings\"](\"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/spiderlings_1705148363.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI think these are the common garden spider (Araneus diadematus). They are tiny and were packed together in a tight group, resembling something akin to a hairy caterpillar. Periodically they would collectively wake up and stretch their many legs, before regrouping in the shelter of the door handle supported by a fine mesh of barely visible webbing.<\/p>\n
We left them there during the day while we got on with more tidying up, which is when I discovered a fine slow worm dozing under a discarded roof tile.<\/p>\n Overhead, starlings were taking their young for flying lessons. Numerous small groups flew over with the adult taking the lead. Later in the afternoon a small number of swifts circled high above the garden, too distant for any usable images. <\/p>\n We’d been keeping an eye on the spiderlings throughout the day, but nothing much happened until this evening. Tonight they went on a long march! All the way up to the guttering on the roof. It was touch surreal to watch the line of spiderlings seemingly ascending in mid-air (the webbing is very fine); but it was a very disciplined and orderly exodus and means we have the use door handle again. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n