Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.
As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”
After scraping about a body’s length of wood pulp off a sapling-supporting pole, this Bald Faced Hornet/Dolichovespula maculata moved upwards about a body’s length to start again:
Note how quickly the initial cut dries back to gray.
The wood pulp collected this way is the basis for the paper that makes up the enveloping structure of the nest as well as the comb within. This is nearby nest in a larch–perhaps the nest this worker was collecting for, perhaps not, as this is common species here.
Are the cones of the larch incorporated into the nest, or are the twigs part of the support?
When not free-standing (hanging) from a branch or human-made structure, the expanding paper nest does seem to start covering over, and around, twigs and other obstacles.
[…] relating to where they usually build their nests.) The typical Dolichovespula seen here is the Bald-faced Hornet/D. maculata, which, being black and white, is unlike any other wasp seen around here. (We don’t seem to […]
Backyard and Beyond 
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