Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.
As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”
Let this be a lesson to me. I turned over a rotten old log that was about two feet long and a quarter of that in diameter. It came apart in three pieces. This stirred up this Bald-Faced Hornet, all covered in saw dust. Must be a queen in her over-wintering chamber.
A thousand pardons, Your Majesty! I put the wood back together after she resettled in her hollow.
Elsewhere that same Saturday, this nearly eye-level nest was still active.
[…] incredible constructions are only built for one season. Only the queen over-winters. The nests rarely survive the winter. This one came crashing down. But this one was collected. […]
[…] nest I’ve seen. Dolichovespula arenaria build paper nests that look quite similar to that of Bald-faced Hornets (D. maculata), which are much more common here in Brooklyn. With a life-span of three to four months, these […]
[…] ready to start a brand new nest somewhere. She spends the winter tucked away in old rooting wood. I stumbled upon a Bald-faced queen a couple of years […]
[…] pool of organic matter, had fallen from the tree in a trio of pieces. Remembering my discovery of a queen Bald-faced Hornet in a log a few years back, I looked over the spongy, riddled pieces of wood carefully. Voila, a […]
[…] of the hive who live beyond the first freeze. She will tuck herself out of the way, perhaps in some rotten wood, shut down for several months, and then wake up in the spring, ready to start a new hive. And […]
Backyard and Beyond 
Leave a reply to Wasp Nests, Part II | Backyard and Beyond Cancel reply