Eating mud pies

No, not really.  But this was still too good to pass up for today's Blip.  This is a Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus) and a welcome inhabitant in my garden.  She measures about an inch (2.5 cm) and while she looks fearsome, she's a gentle creature who will only sting if roughly handled (and what kind of idiot would do that??)  I had one nest along the edge of our walkway last year and was hoping that her young would hatch out this spring and perhaps stay around.  

This was one of two females, both busy excavating their nest tunnels (within about a foot of each other).  They bring out the dirt and bits of gravel in their mouths (mandibles, actually) which is what you see here.  She enters the tunnel head first, backs out with the dirt and then uses her legs to kick the dirt behind her.  Once all her eggs have been laid (in a host insect of some sort) she will seal the tunnel.  She uses katydids and grasshoppers as the primary hosts for her eggs and spends the rest of the summer eating pollen.  I have posted a very short video  HERE on YouTube which shows her digging - kind of cool if you have a spare 30 seconds.

I was nearly struck head-on by a titmouse in the garden - the youngsters haven't quite mastered the whole flying thing yet.  And I was buzzed by two hummers who were so close that they moved the hair on the top of my head on their way by.  And we probably shouldn't even mention the downy woodpeckers careening all over the yard...  Meanwhile, in the front of the house, the egg count in the bluebird box was still 3 as of about an hour ago with both parents sitting up high in the cedars keeping an eye on things.  I'm actually not sure if this is the same pair who nested here before since I never see either of them at the mealworm feeder in the back.  The wren situation is status quo at the moment with both males singing like mad from dawn to dusk.

I narrowly missed getting a shot of a titmouse laying flat out on a dish that usually holds seeds, feathers all raised, wings out on the dish beside it, looking quite dead.  In actuality, it's very hot today and he/she was just cooling off.  It would have been a very funny picture though.  For the first time I can recall, a hummingbird managed to perch on our deck railing - you can see the young lad here, sporting his first few big-boy feathers

Off to meet Ellen for dinner tonight which will be loads of fun.

TTFN, people.
Debbi