Now That's a Spider

While this Dolomedes tenebrosus was happily munching on some sort of unfortunate bug, I took the opportunity to photograph her. She's a beauty. By the end of the summer she will be even larger and more impressive.

You can click on the picture to enlarge it if you'd like a closer look. I would have preferred to post it using Hello, but the software wouldn't cooperate today.

I put my not-so-petite finger beside her to give some scale to the picture. (Apologies to FloridaCracker for the close proximity - not trying to creep you out, FC.) She was quite calm about the whole thing.

I really need to learn the proper way to pick up one of these spiders - without hurting the spider or getting bitten myself.