Morning all,

Did you all take part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch?

 

 

 

Has any one seen the small wasp nest, about the size of a golfball, in the back of the Warbler Hide?

Andy Schofield, who is the RSPB warden from The Lodge nature reserve, identified it as a paper wasp nest.

 

Photo by Andy Hawksworth

 

 

 

The whole thing is essentially made from papier mache – chewed wood mixed with wasp saliva to make a water-resisitant nest. As it’s now unused for the winter, and they always build a new nest, we decided to take it down and look inside. There were several spherical layers and inside that a small cluster of brood cells. A really amazing structure!

     

Photo by Andy Hawksworth

 

I've been reading up on paper wasps, they are pretty amazing!
They are 1.8-2.5 cm long, and there are about 700 different species of paper wasp.

Paper wasps won't sting, unless they feel threatened, or their nest is threatened. So if you see a wasp don't flap your arms and scream -  you're more likely to get stung as the wasp will think you are attacking it.

It has been discovered that paper wasps have facial recognition abilities similar to humans! They can recognise individual wasps based on their facial markings! Amazing!