Not A Hornet And No Yellow Socks

The ivy was buzzing again today. I was momentarily fooled by this hornet-mimicking hoverfly as I dearly want to get a close-up of a hornet. I know they are around as we ejected another from Jazzy's laundry room bedroom the other night. This is not my best pic of the belted hoverfly, the largest in the UK but the fly in the image gives a sense of scale.

I had planned to post a pic of one of my long-tailed-tit troupe nicely colour co-ordinated with the cherry leaves (extras) when I saw on Twitter that the dreaded Asian hornet has arrived here. These insects, dark coloured with yellow 'socks', are actually smaller than our hornets but the worry is that they prey on our honeybees. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/20/arrival-of-asian-hornets-to-uk-mainland-poses-huge-threat-to-hon/