Wowee!

I've dithered over this shot but still decided to post it. Photographically it's awful! But for me it was really exciting, just seeing this hornet, had such an effect on me this morning.

I'd made it my mission to forgo the Echinaecea in search of other plants and the insects attracted to them. I was looking for wasps and I certainly got this one big style.

They're fast and they big compare with the other bees, wasps and hovers. I have an irrational fear of wasps through being stung several times as a child, so this did make me act a little wary of it. But when it did stop, as it had caught a bee, I ventered closer to get few shots. It's very windy today, and the focus is all wrong and the ISO and everything else, but who cares - it's a fantastic insect!

So unfortunately the other bumble bees, flesh fly and hords of tortoiseshell butterflies I took photos of have had to take second place to this beastie.

I swear it was following me around all the time I was in the gardens at Trentham, that's how irrational my feelings were.