Thief

A very welcome day spent largely at home, giving me time to catch up with the garden invertebrates. Much of the garden is now looking very sad, but the Chalk Knapweed on the patio is very drought resistant providing the most reliable source of pollen and nectar for many bees and wasps.

This year we are lucky to have German Wasps nesting in a large soil-filled pot close to our garden bench. They are perfectly happy for me to sit next to them and watch their comings and goings, and the workers can often be found foraging for protein, usually predating smaller insects but also finding carrion or even pieces of human food. 

This worker had spotted some carrion in a spider web, and I managed to get capture this shot after she had extricated it but while she was slightly tangled in spider silk. She soon broke free, and stopped on a leaf to re-adjust her quarry before taking it back to the nest.