I had no luck until late in the afternoon, while mowing in Hirwaun. I had just stopped the mower to empty the grass box and as I was bent over it, I heard a Swift scream. Looking up, there was a mixed flock of Martins and Swallows milling about overhead and jinking through them a single Swift. I watched it ascent above the flock and join a second one, a little to the east. I watched them drifting south until they were out of sight: made my day, that did.
For those who have seen it on Facebook, apologies for repeating myself here. A fortnight ago, I found a nest of European Hornets in an old woodpecker's nest, on private land, in Penderyn. I was up there to cut their grass again today, so I took my camera and got there early, so that I could get a few shots before starting work.
The entrance to te nest was very busy, despite the low temperatures, but I closed in with my camera and began to fire away. I had taken half a dozen and was about to take more, when I was stung on my right forearm, making me involuntarily drop my camera. As I quickly moved away to assess the situation, I pushed up the sleeve of my fleece and was stung on the elbow, by the same individual, who had obviously crawled up my sleeve and was pretty miffed at being disturbed. It must have then escaped, leaving me with two burning stings and a broken ring flash.
Fantastic photos Mark.
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil. The shot I was lining up when I got stung was of over a dozen of the little beauties, crowding through the entrance. Thinking about it now, I am wondering if I might have had a lucky escape there, because, when a wasp is stressed, by the presence of an intruder, it releases a pheremone, which alerts the rest of the nest, who respond in a massed attack. Assuming the one that stung me knew it was trapped and was releasing a similar pheremone, the mass of hornets I was about to photograph may have been responding to it. Certainly, when I went to retrieve my camera, a couple of minutes later, there were dozens of them buzzing around the entrance and looking pretty agitated.
DeleteIt great to read your Acount and i had feeling it would be Penderyn and sound like you had a lucky escape and you could have had a lot worst and i remember being on a Glamorgan bird club trip to the New Forest and pig bush and Geri son Rhys hit a bush with a stick and a Hornet shoot out and went staight for me and chased me around the wood.
ReplyDeleteGreat shots Mark, next time you can borrow my bee suit. There is nothing like being in someones roof space [especially when no one knows you are there] when you bump into a wasp nest half the size of you.
ReplyDeleteOr borrow Phil's latex catsuit.
ReplyDeleteGaze, that was supposed to be a secret.
ReplyDelete