GARDEN CROSS SPIDERLINGS

I erected my "Goldfinch Feeder" yesterday. Basically an RSPB Finch feeder, hung on a piece of garden string above the compost heap, and filled with Egyptian Thistle seeds. We have Goldfinches (see Goldfinch post) over the garden every day - one was singing his dusk chorus from out TV aerial last night, so I'm hoping to tempt them IN to the garden with these irresistable oily, black seeds.

The Feeder had been up but a night, and it (or at least the hanging handle of it) has been taken over by a nest of Garden Cross Spiderlings - a few hundred in number and each no bigger than 2mm long at the moment.

I have no film in the camera presently, but have posted a photo which shows these spiders quite well.Each Spiderling is a yellow colour, and if you look really closely, they all have what looks like a black triangle on their arses.
They form a little tight ball, all gathered together, and when you gently blow on them, the ball "explodes' as each spider moves from the centre of the ball. 2 minutes later, and the ball is back in its normal, tight formation. I am not sure whether these little spiderlings will be AT ALL safe on top of a bird feeder! Time will tell...

Garden Cross Spiders are not rare. They are the most common 'Orb-Web' spiders in our gardens - you know the type, the stripey ones, sitting in the middle of their spiral, photogenic web. A photo of the adult Garden Cross spider is pictured below.
You will immediately see where it gets its "cross" name.