Attack!
Not my best photo of the day, but definitely the most interesting. I was taking some photos of the hummingbird clearwing moth because it was exceptionally small - out of nowhere came a bald-faced hornet (actually an aerial yellow jacket species). It grabbed the wing of the moth just for a brief moment before zooming off. I can only speculate that it was checking to see if the moth was suitable prey for it to bring back to the nest and feed the larva. These wasps take a lot of different prey species back to feed their young in their large paper nests. Adult wasps eat only nectar, plant matter and honeydew from other insects. I love it when I see things like this as it opens up so many questions.
I had a really fun morning at the wildlife refuge. I had been asked to do a session with kids introducing them to insects and spiders and today was the day. It was cool, only in the low 60's but the 7 kids (with adults in tow) were enthralled. I brought some "sample" insects with me in mesh containers that they could look at and my friend from the refuge brought some mealworms and darkling beetles which the kids could safely handle. From there, we dispensed collection jars with magnifying lens caps and set off to see what we could find. The kids were from about 3 to 10 or so, five girls and two little boys, and all so curious. They had a ball and found so many cool little insects in spite of the low temps - each time they got something, they'd run to show me which just made my heart happy. There were some small sheets of plywood that had been placed in the grass to attract salamanders and small snakes underneath so I dutifully turned over each one, producing a wide variety of things including a meadow vole, cave crickets, roly-poly bugs, spiders and, surprisingly, lots and lots of medium sized snails which were a huge hit with the kids. Check out photo in Extra of my Chief Assistant Bug Girl, Freya, with a snail making its way across her hand. Once the younger kids saw her doing this, they all immediately wanted to try - so utterly adorable!
So a very fun morning and something I will definitely do again. Once home, I grabbed some lunch and then headed over to the closest farm to get a small cup of their sweet corn/honey ice cream. Been wanting to try it and it did not disappoint. All of their ingredient are sourced locally and the ice cream is just delicious.
Virtual cocktails with my besties tonight and then Hubs and I (and Jax) will settle in and watch something on TV before calling it a day.
xoxo
Debbi
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