Robert recently gave me a super early birthday present and I have been racing around taking a zillion pictures. It's the latest iPhone with macro capabilities, and I can get really close to things. I learned very quickly that there are a few things I don't want to get too close to. I got so close to a spider it scampered. You never want to be close when that happens.
I've been incorporating more and more of my pictures into my artwork, mostly using small components, but my next art project goes a bit further. That's all I can say at the moment, but being able to take really nice macro shots is giving me all kinds of inspiration and material for my art.
Here are a few of my first pictures. Can you guess what each plant is?
Am I ever impressed! Love 'em spiders, so except for not wanting to disturb one, you were almost surely in no in danger. I also love 'em bees--and wasps too. My storage shed has 10-15 ten wasp nests in the summer (I bring the nests indoors in winter so I can at least enjoy having that my beloved wasps created), and I made a large structure for solitary bees. Wonderful photos. I so enjoyed this post, and I so hope that you're continuing to enjoy taking photos.
ReplyDeleteWasps are scary! But their nests are so pretty. Are the wasps usually gone when you bring in their nests? I will post more pictures soon. We've been having a beautiful fall here.
DeleteThey're not in the nest when I bring the nests in. They--females all--work hard until season's end and then they go away and die alone. I did pull a nest down a few weeks ago, which, to my surprise, had five living wasps on it. They were pretty lethargic, so they didn't fly away or sting me. As for wasps being scary, they are like many creatures--dogs, cats, people, etc.--in that they have the potential to harm, but they're seldom motivated to do it. I grew up in Mississippi, and the wasps down there are much more protective of their nests; they build much larger nests; and their stings hurt a lot more. The wasps here in Oregon are a lot less aggressive. In getting things from my shed, my head is often within inches of their nests, yet I've never been stung except for when I stepped on a wasp while walking to my compost in flip-flops. She nailed me between two of my toes, and when I drew away, she was mortally wounded--I felt much worse for her than I did for myself. I've also been stung by yellow jackets, which have underground nests and can become quite aggressive, especially in the fall. My regular wasps--and yellow jackets also-- cluster upon fallen pears, and I can pick a pear up and study them without fear of being stung, so there again it holds true that when they do sting, it's usually to protect their nests. The only time I have a problem with wasps is that they will gather on my hummingbird feeder, presumably to collect the sugar around the holes. The wasps will deliberately go after hummingbirds, which are deathly afraid of them.
DeleteWow, beautiful wasp stories. I sat on a mud dauber nest when I was very little, so I stay far away from stinging insects. I wouldn't call it fear. I recently read somewhere that mud daubers don't usually sting. So, it could have been another stinging insect and they got the blame. Or it was one of the rare occurrences they do sting. A toddler’s bottom does seem like a pretty big threat. While swimming at an outside hotel pool recently, I noticed bees were landing in the water. A lady was in the pool with me, and she was trying to save them. A few looked like they were going to make it, so I helped her. I wasn't thrilled about it. I was ready to leave. But then one of the bees managed to take off after she scooped him out. As for your wasps enjoying the hummingbird feeder, I wonder if there's a way to deter the wasps without hurting them. Probably not, but my heart goes out to the hummingbirds.
DeleteOne thing I did to help was to paint the yellow "flowers" on the feeder red because red attracts birds while yellow attracts wasps, which is to say that the only reason the feeders have yellow flowers is that people are more likely to buy them. The red paint really has helped, but I've also put shallow basins of water out for the wasps, and that too seems to have helped.
ReplyDeleteThat is fascinating. I didn't know that!
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