The hornet saga continues: Spike was sat to attention a good three metres away from the hornets’ nest tree when I arrived there this morning. He was looking up at the nest entrances and making soft woofing noises. There was a lot of activity. Hornets were flying in and out of the nest, and some where climbing down the tree trunk carrying grubs, which they dropped at the base of the tree.

Why I am compelled to push my camera lens into melees such as these and begin clicking and flashing away at hornets that are obviously agitated? I think I feel that as long as my eye is behind the view finder I will be safe and that the hornets won’t realise I am there, but realise they did. They forced me to put quite a bit of distance between us.

Spike must have realised something was going on at the nest last night, because he has never scrabbled away so enthusiastically at a tree trunk before. Why did he sit well away from the nest this morning? I reckon that Spike sensed the hornet attack pheromones. Maybe a predator entered the nest last night, and this morning the hornets were removing dead bodies and carrying out repair.

It’s just this kind of mystery that makes the outdoors so interesting

HORNET DUMPING HORNET GRUBS.