I have hundreds...

... of wasps in my garden at the moment.

Today I have been photographing and videoing them. I am within a few inches of them. They are all around me. Dozens and dozens of wasps.

I have half a dozen willow trees. They are on each willow tree...

Why?

If you look in the collage in extras you will see dark grey aphids. One has 2 larger aphids who appear to be creating the tiny aphids. In the other aphid photo you can see the lattice work of the very tiny aphid bodies They remind me of Shreddies... I managed to enlarge them on the iPad, but they are tiny in reality.

These aphids appear on all the willow trees in my garden at this time of year.

Their excreta is called honeydew.

So, as you can imagine this tastes sweet. This attracts the wasps.

Every time the sun comes out, it must trigger off the sweet smell, because suddenly dozens and dozens of wasps suddenly fly in from nowhere.

I find it very interesting observing the wasps, and photographing them. They are not interested in me at all. I can walk through these swarms of wasps or stand among them photographing them. I have done this every September for about 15 years.

The last time I did this I used a digital camera. This is the first time I have attempted to do this with my iPad.

I will get better at this with the iPad.

There is a snag with the iPad. The digital camera was only a tiny one. The iPad has a massive big flat screen. The honeydew lands on the screen. So as I am photographing the wasps on the tree, wasps are landing my iPad, licking the screen as I am holding it taking photos. That was okay initially, but I knew I was going to have retreat eventually.

When the honeydew landed on my glasses, that was the point I retreated indoors, cleaned my glasses and the iPad screen, then came out again to take more photos.

I sent the videos to my grandchildren. I got feedback from Australia, and they were riveted by them. Something had gone wrong when I took the videos. They were normal speed initially, but suddenly a couple seconds in when I replayed them, the videos slowed down into incredibly slow motion. This meant you could see all the details of the wasps as they flying, having a fisticuffs fight because two wanted the same bit of honeydew, and see them actually 'licking' up the honeydew.

There are so many variations of markings of the wasps, and their cute little faces. Every face looks different. I adore their faces...

The grandchildren in Australia want more videos of wasps!!! So my daughter has set up a Skype account for them, and I will be sending wasps videos and photos on it!

Be prepared for more wasp photos from me!
It is tricky getting the iPad to focus on them. They move too fast for a start.