Laboscope

The sparrows are eating less of the fat balls and the suet blocks, so I went to investigate. The sparrow are still here all day long but they are eating more slowly now.

I found the reason behind the bush where some of the fat balls hang.

I walked into a cloud of hundreds of wasps. 

Ah, it is honeydew beer fest time! It lasts about a month.

The black aphids were on a different tree this year. And there are thousands  of black aphids, clustered on every branch.

The black ants are already taking their cut, they are milking the aphids. They are literally farming the aphids. 


Wasps absolutely enjoy drinking alcohol. And this honeydew is their preferred beverage at this time of year. Every few minutes a fight breaks out. And they literally go at each other with fisticuffs. It is riveting to watch. And I do take photographs of them. But I have a problem. There is so much honeydew dripping from the tree, that it inevitably gets on my phone camera. And I end up with wasps trying to eat/lick the honeydew off my phone as I am trying to take photos. So, I have to retreat frequently to clean up my phone. 


These wasps don't bother me, I am not a threat to them. I have to walk through them the next month or so to get to the potting shed and the garage. They have never stung me during their honeydew fest.

Now, what does this have to do with sparrows, and the other smaller birds in my garden?

At this time of year, if I have my cochlear sound processor on, I can hear a lot of beating of the sparrows wings on the leaves in the bush/tree. It is actually quite an ominous sound, which would be good for scary film effects. What are the sparrows doing? They are catching the wasps for dessert.

So, this interesting cycle of events is saving me some money on bird food.

Creative this morning, a kaleidoscope in Laboscope of my vegetable garden. The main leaf in this is my corn salad, but Laboscope has given it pointed leaves.

Time for coffee.
Time for a nap.
Have your best day...