Published via Ecency

I was out for a walk, and the moment I left the car, I saw an unusual sight. The trees and bushes were covered with fragile frosty tinsel.

It was tricky to capture what the forest looked like, but I did my best to put the frosty strands against a dark background and put the lens wide open to limit the depth of field, so it looks a bit less busy.

But how did that form?

Here is an almost identical photo, but I kept it a bit darker to show the frost crystals better.

The day was foggy, so the moisture in the air must have been condensing all night long (which in mid-January means 17 hours between sunset and the next sunrise).

I love close-ups, and it was a pity that I forgot to take my telephoto lens in the car.

The spruces made a great background to show the beauty of the crystals on the branches.

The forest was a decent background, too. I love the intricate details in this one.

But I would say that my favourite were the strands formed on the branches of spruces. They were like Christmas trees.

The frost and tinsel was everywhere, really.

But how did these really form?

Maybe some of you guessed that the frost formed on strands of spider silk. I must admit that I was amazed that in this frosty weather, there were any cold-blooded lifeforms in motion.

In the past few days, the temperature was slightly above freezing during the day, so probably some critters thought it is time for a snack.

A big warning to people with arachnophobia - below there is a series of photos of spiders. If you are afraid of them, you can stop reading here.

By the way, did you know that even biologists can be uncomfortable with spiders? There was a scientific article reporting it:

Arachnophobic Entomologists: When Two More Legs Make a Big Difference

This little friend was literally and completely frozen. I wish I could put a webcam to track it to see how it gets defrosted when it gets a bit warmer.

Probably I am mean but I find it beautiful. Here is a crop of the previous photo.

As I was passing a tree, I noticed something was hanging. Having seen so many strands of spider silk, I was no longer surprised. What was unexpected, though, was that it looked like the strand was getting longer and longer...

I thought, okay, it must be the wind...

... until the spider was on the ground. And I saw it slowly move a leg ... and then another leg...

Despite the ice on its body, it was still not completely stunned.

If that was unexpected, the next sight was even harder to believe.

There was a bigger brown spider that was moving rather quickly. It did not take it long to cross the path.

It is a pity that the photo is not particularly sharp. It was getting dark, and I had to keep my lens wide open at f/1.8. There is motion blur because of my unstable hands, as well.