Sometimes I forget what living in Arizona means…..

I have seen more tarantulas this year....my neighbor had one on his porch, I keep seeing them under the Airstream.....they're out there!

Every time I forget that Arizona is more than beautiful skies, amazing sunsets, wild rock formations, and groves of Aspens, something reaches out and smacks me back into reality.  For instance…..this very large tarantula that was crossing the path over at Willow Lake.  I went out to shoot for the evening, and while wandering the path I came upon a very large fellow traveler.  This traveler had many more legs than me!

Tarantulas don’t bother me.  All other spiders do, but not these guys.  They don’t show up in my home.  Other ones do.  Brown recluses (which were back in NH too), black widows, huge wolf spiders…..they’ve all shown up in my home.  Tarantulas….yeah, not so much.  But they do remind me, this isn’t my land.

Scorpions, rattle snakes, tarantulas, black widows, bob cats, kotamundis, mountain lions……..there’s a lot here that isn’t in New Hampshire.

By the way, for those of you who live around here.  The tarantulas are on the move early this year.  I don’t know if that means fall is coming sooner, I only know that I’ve seen tons of them crossing dirt roads, paths, migrating under my Airstream, and hanging out on the neighbor’s porch.  Watch where you’re going.  Don’t squish these guys, they keep other stuff in check!

Oh, and this poor specimen froze up when I got too close.  The vibration of my steps was enough to tell it to ball up into an uninteresting clump that wasn’t photogenic.  Next time I’ll keep back!