Jordan Lake. I had never seen a spider web which had anchor lines that looked like they were perforated to tear the line apart. I sent my photo over to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Ask a Naturalist tab. The entomologist told me that the web was built by an orb weaver and, get this, those thickened areas along the anchor lines – those dashes are spider silk tufts placed there by the spider as bird flags! So that birds will see the web and not fly through and destroy it. Who would’ve thought! Nature bedazzles me again.