2nd June - Sprowston,
Norwich
We have
a monster in the garden. A monster wasp: a hornet. This particular beast caught
the corner of my eye a couple of days ago as I was lounging on the patio
munching a sandwich. I saw an arrow of yellow and orange dive in the direction
of our dead cherry tree and disbelievingly thought to myself that was a hornet. And it was. This
enterprising individual has spent its time since then rasping soft, damp wood
shavings from the depths of a hole made by a great spotted woodpecker. It
visits every 30-40 minutes, fills its formidable jaws with wood pulp and makes
off in a north westerly direction at amazing speed to the colony’s nest. It’s
intriguing to speculate on how far this dedicated craftsman travels and how on earth
it unerringly comes back to the very same hollow in the very same tree. It must
be quite a journey since its departure route is high, but I don’t suppose I’ll
ever find out. It does go to demonstrate the incredible powers of navigation
such creatures possess, does it use landmarks as a guide, or the relative
position of the sun, or a combination of both? It must be using eyes and an
inbuilt compass because there is no possibility of following any scent trail or
suchlike. Simply fascinating.
Hornets
have undoubtedly become more widespread of late with sightings quite regular
across the county. The sight of one rocketing into a common darter and knocking
it to the ground thereupon to feast at Upton Fen was quite impressive. And they
really are not aggressive to humans........unless provoked! I’ve stood just
inches away from an active nest that was built in a hide at Hickling along what
is now the Weaver’s Way, and I felt not the slightest bit worried or
threatened. Leave them alone and they will simply go about their business and
totally ignore you.
Having said that I did once witness a rather comical (not
for the victim) attack by a hornet on a young warden helping with a moth trap
at Hickling. Ironically this very amiable chap was telling me earlier that he
was trying to work up immunity to insect bites by taking no precautions against
mosquitos and the like, this on the basis his work necessitated regular
exposure to those irritating bloodsuckers. As the moth trap was approached, an
angry hornet flew out and somehow dived under the close fitting top this guy
was wearing. The sight of him dancing like a marionette slapping various parts of
his torso as the hornet stung was a hoot. Poor bloke got stung three times
before the hornet found its way out and buzzed away. With that in mind I do
approach moth traps with a degree of caution nowadays, just a little bit of me
getting ready to run like hell!
No comments:
Post a Comment