Spiders in Snow

I often find spiders out and about on warm winter days, although it's generally more like 'out and almost frozen'. Spiders can't generate body heat, so the further they wander into the barren snow, the colder and slower they get, until they're too cold to move at all.

If it's sunny, dark-colored individuals may be able to soak up enough rays to continue moving, but they're still at risk when passing clouds cut off their life-giving supply of heat.

Why do spiders leave the relative warmth and safety of bark crevices and mossy beds? Perhaps they get the munchies when high temperatures wake them from hibernation, so they go searching for other tiny and cold-trapped critters such as flies or beetles.

Spiders are, themselves, essential winter tidbits for many different species of birds and small mammals. One of the most impressive is the golden-crowned kinglet. This bird is almost as small as a hummingbird, yet it manages to survive the rigors of a northern winter. Check out Maine author Bernd Heinrich's 2009 book 'Winter World' for an engaging look at how these birds (and other critters) manage to survive winter in Maine.

Whenever I find spiders slowly freezing in the snow, I scoop them up and cart them over to a warm refuge such as a crevice-filled stump or log.

After all, I don't enjoy being cold either.