Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Some Wasps

Have you noticed all the parts of a wasp’s mouth? That’s the tongue in the center there, reaching into the nectar, but that’s not the half of it.
This is Ammophila pictipennis, I think, one of the thread-waisted wasps.
Here’s a European Hornet, hanging from at least one foot, devouring a Western Honey Bee. These big hornets are relatively slow fliers and seem to miss most of their tackle-like approaches to prey, but they clearly hit enough to carry on.
It was a cool morning, and I didn’t see any of these ubiquitous European Paper Wasps out and about until I happened to spy one of their nests in the plantings.
These are relatively small, uncovered nests, compared to:
The football-sized paper-wrapped nests of Bald-faced Hornets.
This German Yellowjacket was obsessed with my boots, flying around them, landing besides them, and at one point climbing up one of them. I moved a few feet away, and the process repeated itself. Did it again, and it happened again. Finally lost the wasp by moving further away.
Eumenes something-or-other-should-be-distinctive, one of the pottery and mason wasps. A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

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