I can warmly recommend the book “Wasps. The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect” by Eric R. Eaton (Princeton University Press).
There are thousands of species of wasps, some are microscopic (and still can fly in a controlled fashion), some are ginormous. And many are blue.
Most are solitary.
Ants (who are always social) are descendent from wasps. You can see that when the queens fly away from the nest, before they lose their wings.
And termites (who are also always social) are descendent from cockroaches! When ants and termites wage war, which they do often, it is a fight between wasps and cockroaches.
I think I saw one of those today, too. A scene that looked just like that. I looked close enough to confirm that, A, it didn’t look like a lanternfly, and B, the total amount of buggage was large enough that it’d make a mess on my shoe if I stomped them, and went on my way.
Yesterday morning on my walk I saw a coyote trot by very close to me…about 8:30 am. It looked very healthy. Thin, but coyotes aren’t naturally as bulky as dogs. His coat looked good, and he was moving well. He ducked into a landscaped area between a condo development and one of the local high schools ( there are two next to each other – one is LAUSD, and the other is an RC one). I think he might have been looking for a cool place to hunker down. It was going to be a hot day, and there’s construction going on in the former open lots near by.
This morning I almost stepped on a gorgeous goldy orange dragon fly. It didn’t move at all. Maybe already dead or close to it?
OK, this isn’t a great photo, for which I apologize. However…
This was taken in Shoreham-by-Sea, on the coast pretty much due south of London, today. We’re on the Adur estuary. That bird looks like a swan. And it’s black. And Google Photos ID’s it as a Black Swan. And the internet has lots of pictures of Black Swans which look just like that. And, it transpires, there have been multiple sightings on this stretch of river recently. So unless someone can enlighten me otherwise, that’s a Black Swan.
Stone me. I can’t overemphasize how rare this is. There is (it transpires) an introduced colony in Dawlish, a couple of hundred miles west. In 2012 (most recent info I can find) there were 39 known breeding pairs in the UK, and I presume many/most are in Dawlish.
Yowsa!
j
Of course it is! I’ve always believed that you live in a magical place.
I’m starting to agree with you.
j
You can’t fool me. That’s Nessie!
It is kinda a doppelganger, I have to admit. 
j
Convergent evolution. So nice!
From where I’m sitting now, I could go 10km in several directions and see lots of swans, all of em black. One place in particular, they come out of the water and shoehorn themselves into your barbie. Which is a bit disconcerting, as they are quite large. Meanwhile here are some very white sulphur-crested cockatoos.
I was astonished when we visited Australia and a cockatoo landed on our hotel balcony. We thought someone’s pet had gotten loose. Of course, we soon saw lots more of them!
That was my first thought!
It took me a while to get used to the wild flocks of parrots here in L.A.
It’s not exactly nature, but today we went for a lunchtime drink and stumbled across a meerkat colony. No shit!
Adult meerkat on watch, kits huddled at the base of the pole. Click thru for the full image
Adult and kit
They’re in a large and complex run, with private areas, but I think there are two families (could be more). They’re rescued descendants of what was originally a “pet” colony back in the last century. Given that they have obviously been breeding, I don’t know how the lack of genetic diversity in a small population has been managed.
We stayed and watched for about 20 minutes. I mean, you could lose a week and a half watching them, no bother. The pub? Well, according to google maps it now goes by the name of The Royal Oak Inn & Meerkat Retreat in Brockham. An easy google if you’re so inclined.
j
Saw a molting mallard.
I don’t know if my yard counts as nature or civilization, so this may be in the wrong thread, but yesterday when I was out mowing I just about ran over a roughly 3’ long black snake slithering through the grass. I just mowed slowly behind him until he disappeared in the crack between two railroad ties that our neighbor’s shed sits on. I’ve seen plenty of garter snakes, toads, and blue tailed skinks in the yard before but never a black snake. Hopefully he’s just gobbling up mice and stuff.
OMG! I must go there someday. Were you allowed to pet the meerkats? The pictures on TripAdvisor make it look like they wouldn’t mind it (the 'kats, I mean).
I was walking by one of the water features in my condo development, and I was startled by a bird that I think I startled flying out of the water. It was fast, so at first I thought it was a pigeon. But something in my brain said “too big.” When I got a good look at it, it was a Cooper’s Hawk. I know we have them (or at least one) around. I’ve seen the messy remains of its meals, too.
We had no idea the meerkats were there (despite the fact that we must have visited the pub three or four times since the 'kats arrived last October - we never got as far as the back garden*). So we just sat and watched them. But if you check out the reviews on Google maps, it appears that yes, they do have petting sessions.
We have friends for the day on Thursday, and we had been wondering what to do with them.The wife is an absolute animal nut - so the ideal solution just dropped in our lap. I may report back after Thursday.
j
* - this isn’t quite as stupid as it sounds - the pub is on Brockham Village Green, widely regarded as one of the most beautiful village greens in England - so absent a good reason to do otherwise you would tend to sit out the front.
Well folks got another rarity today, 2 in point of fact…
I went out to my car on a brilliant coolish day, and saw 3 birds high up, circling over my apartment complex.
I quickly got my binocs out of the car and trained them on the avians in question…
The two big ones were pretty much all dark brown, darker on the front undersides of the wings. They were much bigger than Turkey or Black Vultures, and not tilty or with a v-shaped wing angle, shape and dimensions of the wings all wrong for Blacks, flat dihedral.
The third bird was Red-Tailed Hawk, but DAMN he looked absolutely puny next to these behemoths. He may have been mobbing them in point of fact, there’s a Red-Tail nest 1,000 yards away in the valley below, note.
Second thought was immature Bald Eagles, but they have extensive amounts of white on the undersides of the wings, which these didn’t have. Head and tail both dark. Welp Golden Eagle juveniles also have a lot of white under the wings…
Then on both individuals I periodically noticed a white rump patch as they circled. Goldens have a partially white tail, yes starting in the rump and extending halfway down the tail, which is otherwise brown, but this is often only visible on the upperside. This patch or ring can be individually variable however, note, on both sides of the tail. That clinched it for me. After seeing many soaring Balds over the years, these guys didn’t fly like Balds do-hard to put into words, but it was just different somehow. [Experienced birders call this a bird’s “jizz”-please no jokes thanks…]
I have lost my old Cornell ID and data (linked to an abandoned email), so started a new account this afternoon so I could access the individual sightings. The closest sightings this month are in southern Canada, one in the NE corner of Lake Huron 300 miles from here, but N. Ohio does get some, mainly in the cooler months, but August is post-breeding dispersal time and they can wander all over creation, but mated pairs stay with each other year-round. Only 2 records for this month in the state are 3 along the Ohio river 200 miles south of here.
Cornell had already put my old account on suspension after I sent in some what it thought were questionable rarities (I got it cleared tho-like these I was sure of those as well), so the last thing I want to do is input my sightings today and have them flag my (new) account again. They usually require photographic evidence, which wasn’t available in this case.
In any event this species has definitely been at the top of my most-wanted list for a number of years now, and I was already thinking of braving Hawk Mountain the later fall when they show up in numbers. Wowza.