This one is reasonably appropriate for the time, because we have entered the season where we often hit the dewpoint not long after nightfall, and NC humidity means this isn’t halfhearted at all. Not to mention that, as I type this early yesterday morning, I am about to go out to see if the sunrise is worth pursuing.
For this photo (from, surprise surprise, the Arthropods folder,) I was out before sunrise for a whippet trial, where people race their pet whippets (like mini greyhounds) in casual competition – which is a little interesting to contemplate because the greyhound racing industry itself is a bit questionable and produces umpteen thousand discarded dogs each year (one of which The Girlfriend had, but much later than this was taken.) Yet, both breeds were bred for running and they like the competition, as do many other dog breeds because it reflects parts of the pack dynamic.
But back to the photo. This wasn’t the most dew-laden morning that I’d seen, but it ranks in the top five at least, and this black-and-yellow argiope (Argiope aurantia) demonstrated it better than anything else. It seems funny to us that something living could have dew form on it, but that’s because we produce a significant amount of body heat which would prevent it – arthropods, and to a lesser extent reptiles, do not, so they offer close to the same conditions for dew to form. In this case, it was almost indistinguishable from a heavy rain – most times dew forms in tiny droplets with even distribution, and shows better on the webs than on the spiders, but given the farm lowlands where I was, there was a good chance the night had been foggy as hell, which would have contributed. I saw no other indications of rain such as wet roads, so I’m presuming these were the conditions, but if you really need to know, I can’t help you; I can’t even remember where this was so you could look up the meteorological reports for that date, but maybe you should stop obsessing over such pointless things anyway…