Friday, October 08, 2010

Hornets

The summer is the time I mainly end up snapping insects - not just the fact that there are so many around, but also the fact that not so much else is! When I heard that Rich had a hornets nest in an empty barn owl box I knew I finally had a chance of snapping an insect that had previously escaped my attentions. Trouble is the box was pretty high up, and the hornets didn't seem to use the nearby foliage to rest.
Brainwave - fruit. The plums? Nothing. What about the windfall apples? As I walked up a large yellow shape flew off and I realised my luck was in.Actually it wasn't that easy - there were a couple visiting, but only now and again. Still they proved to be very tolerant, not at all aggressive. Unless that is you were a careless flesh fly .......... Clearly a chunk of protein was a better bet than fruit.
I've put plenty more shots on the web album - 'latest pictures'. Mostly insects, including a fair few inflagrante delicto ...........



2 comments:

Pete Smith said...

Hi Brian,

Great Hornets. I think they are great creatures and, as you say, not at all agressive (unless you feature in their diet!) I finally managed to get some reasonable shots of Hornets in August having been trying since April. I had seen a fair few but they just wouldn't settle anywhere. Windfalls was a great idea.

By the way your Wooodland Puddles series is superb very original and some fantastic pictures.

Pete

Bob Bushell said...

Nice one Brian, they are quite a handful if you catch one, lol.