I’ve often wondered what a paper wasp sting feels like and today I found out. I was trying to flick a hose pipe across a correa alba hedge when I felt a sudden sharp pain and saw a pretty little paper wasp looking straight at me. It wasn’t the only sting of the day.
I followed guidelines to wash the site, use a cold compress, swallow an eighteenth month out of date Telfast antihistamine (after checking with my lovely pharmacist) and elevate my hand. And then it was time to get back to work. I thought I’d be nice and pick some soft green grass from my place (there isn’t much) to give to the horse over the fence (where there is none) only to get sting number two on my foot from a bull ant. What are the chances of that! At least I knew exactly where the ice pack was and I was already dosed up with Telfast! I was super careful later in the day when emptying the trailer on the back of the ride-on mower into a space where a spider wasp was methodically searching for a spider. I was not keen to experience a third sting in one day.
My close encounters with invertebrates today made me decide on a theme for this week’s post: birds with bugs. Common Blackbirds are not native and it’s likely that they take the ecological niche of Bassian Thrushes and the like. Their song is beautiful and it’s fascinating to watch them tilt their heads towards the ground as they listen for bugs moving through the soil.
A Rainbow Bee-eater, in the rain, eating a bee – very serendipitous.
When I took this photograph I initially thought it had caught some kind of moth or butterfly but realised when I was processing the image that it looks more like spider’s web that would be used for nest construction. Many smaller birds species use spider webs to help with nest building.
This male Flame Robin and its partner spent a good part of a rainy afternoon feeding on what I believe were mole cricket larvae that were coming to the surface as the soil became waterlogged.
The parent Welcome Swallow were frantically catching bugs to feed their hungry triplets.
Crimson Chats are exquisitely beautiful birds. Use the search box if you’d like to see photographs I’ve shared of the spectacular males.
This fabulous little pipit has caught a very strange looking bug.
I try to keep my garden as bug-friendly as possible. I cringe whenever I see people sharing ways to kill caterpillars, though I do understand how much damage they can do. I couldn’t hurt them, for me it would be like killing a butterfly or moth. Searching the world wide web for ‘insectary’ is a good idea if you’d like to learn more ways to attract beneficial insects to your garden.
Oh, while I was carefully keeping an eye on the spider wasp a blue-banded bee was buzzing around. They are such gorgeous creatures, hopefully one day I’ll get a photograph that is good enough to share.
Happy birding and please don’t get stung, Kim
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