Duel to the death

I just witnessed the craziest Wild Kingdom-esque death battle right outside my window as I edited Football Thursday.

So there is this massive spider with a web on a tree right outside my office window. I myself would not mess with this thing. It is roughly the size of Ted Washington.

I also suddenly have a hornets nest somewhere near the house. Why the hornets arrived in November in Seattle, don't ask me.

Either way, you can see the invetable showdown looming.

Occasionally, hornets would come close to the web, but the spider would shake violently and scare them off.

Finally, one came too close and got caught in the web. The spider tried to pounce, but the hornet kept flashing its stinger. The spider would manuever around the stinger and try to bite; the hornet would thrash around and try to sting.

This went on longer than you might think. Eventually the hornet got a little too tangled in the web and it was lights out soon thereafter.

The spider just got done wrapping him up in webbing and then did a little touchdown dance and I think he just pulled out a Sharpie.

No, I'm not making any of that up, except the Sharpie part.