An Unkindness of Ravens

By Nevermore

Wasp mimic bee mimic wasp?

If you flick between this image of a wasp mimic bee and this one, it's really hard to tell them apart! Today's shot is I'm pretty sure (but not 100%) an actual wasp, not a bee. The differences are that the wasp is less hairy (though it is still a bit hairy), the face doesn't have the yellow stripe down the centre, the wasp has some orange spots, the mouth parts look different. But mainly, the wasp's legs are all dingly dangly underneath it when it flies. Bees legs don't do that. So, the wasp mimic bee is a very good mimic indeed.

Some excitement this morning – my oak tree next to the kitchen was struck by lightning! A very sudden storm came out of nowhere (I was on a metal ladder next to the tree only a couple of minutes before, cleaning windows) and there was a huge CRACK! and the power went out. The lightning had run down the tree and somehow jumped into a power socket in the kitchen, thrown the skirting board off the wall, burnt the wood inside the wall and blasted the bricks on the outside of the wall! High drama, especially with the snake yesterday! It never rains but it pours (and it did, for about two minutes). The tree doesn't make a very exciting photo though – just a strip of bark running down it that was blasted off.

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