Again, I was reading outside. Twice I watched a paper wasp gather nest materials before I ran in to get the camera. I really, really tried to get video of this, because it was amazing. But I don’t know my camera well enough to get it to focus on the right spot in video mode, so I’m stuck with a still photo (and very blurry video).
This is again sitting in my sky chair. I spend a lot of time there. The chairs have wood dowels that run the length of the chair as support along the arms, sort of. This wasp landed on the dowel to my left and proceeded to scrape off the top layer of wood, rolling it into a little ball with his feet from time to time. He spent maybe five minutes each time rolling, then headed back to his nest (I imagine). He came back maybe five minutes later. It was really so incredible to watch this happen, maybe 6 inches from my face. I’ve never seen anything like it. Here’s a still photo of the action. The little gray ball attached to the wasp’s mouth is the scraped-off wood.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:05 pm
You are much less squeamish than I am. I could watch rabbits and groundhogs all day long (and Cody, too), but when the wasps come out, I go back in. Of course, I’d be hanging upside down, twisted into a pretzel-like shape trying to get in and out of the sky chair, so I’d be easy pickings for the wasps.
June 1st, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Pam - Your comment made me think two things:
1) We’ve all got our fears. Most bugs aren’t mine. But spiders? I’m totally terrified of even most of the little, harmless ones. Like, can’t breathe, heart races at breakneck speed terrified. I’m also afraid of bears (we’re not talking healthy respect here - I have a definite fear of going in any woods where there’s even a slim chance of encountering bears. And horses. I know this isn’t so common, but they freak me out. They’re gorgeous, but not up close. I think it’s the teeth. Shudder.
2) I’ve never had a problem with getting tangled up in sky chairs. I love them! But last night I came out to read and sat in the chair after an extremely windy day. We’ve got wind chimes hanging from the same support beam as two sky chairs - I can post pictures one of these days. Sometimes the chimes get tangled in the sky chair ropes. Last night, I didn’t look before sitting down. My weight snapped the wind chime support hook, and they came crashing down on my head! It hurt like you wouldn’t believe. Those chimes are a lot of metal, so very heavy. Thankfully there was no blood, and I was not left with any lumps this morning. But last night I was ready to swear off wind chimes forever. Tonight I’m typing this from the same sky chair, but the wind chimes haven’t been re-hung, and it’s awfully quiet out here . . .
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Rehang the chimes, but do it somewhere else. Pretty noises are good.