A spider and a hawk catching prey.

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First up is the spider, and then the hawk after that.
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I also have a short video in here to show you Betty's action.

My wife called the spider Betty, and Betty decided to build her 3-dimensional web in our bathroom.

We might have this wrong, but we think that Betty is a small Black Cobweb spider, and I also have a bird of prey to show you after the spider.

Steatoda capensis is a spider originating from South Africa. Its common names include the black cobweb spider, brown house spider, cupboard spider and due to its similarities to the katipō spider it is commonly known as the false katipō in New Zealand. Common throughout Southern Africa, it has been introduced into other countries and is now present in Australia and throughout New Zealand. It is a small spider, usually an all-over shiny black. It may have a small bright red, orange, or yellow patch near the tip of the abdomen along with a crescent shaped band near the front of the abdomen.

It is thought that in some instances Steatoda capensis can bite humans causing a syndrome known as steatodism; which has been described as a less-severe form of latrodectism. Bites can be quite painful and can cause a general malaise for about a day.

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The action video will show you that the little wasp stood no chance.

Here below, I will show you how a Harrier Hawk, lifted a dove off its nest.

The missus saw this harrier hawk landing on the roof edge of a building. Just in time I lifted my camera, and I will show you below what happened.
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Look, in a second the hawk lifted a dove off its nest.
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I wonder what that saint on the church wall at the left thought about the hawks' actions.
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Not often that you will see this, and it all happened in a few seconds, and so fast that I could only get the 3 shots before the hawk was gone. As usual, I think that it sat close by in a hidden spot to watch the nest, and once the mom landed on the nest, the hawk grabbed her. We often have scenes like this, and things happen so fast that I can rarely get them on camera, but in here, as you can see, I got lucky, and I thought that you might also want to see it.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

Thank you kindly for supporting this post.

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19 comments
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looks like that hawk caught a bat

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Nah Mick, I took that lifting shot too quick, as it was definitely a dove that I saw. Bats over here never sit on the top of roofs, as they hang in caves and dense trees.
!BEER

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Oh wow great capture. Indeed it looks like it got a bat.

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looks like you pissed someone off :D gave some votes back 😜

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(Edited)

Yeah blurt haters.. hah thanks man

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Thank you, and no, I saw that it was a dove when the hawk lifted it. The dove was alive, and it flapped its wings as the hawk flew away with it.

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never thought that size of spider is harmfull, not just like spiders in our home is harmless but they are terrible large in size

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We also have some very large spiders here in Africa. The rain spiders, and the tarantula can grow very to a very big size. Some people keep them as pets. !Lol

There are many small spider species here that are very poisonous.

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