Hornet's Nest

    I see these big papery “hornet’s nests” (I don’t actually know if its hornets, bees, or wasps that build them), every summer.  I usually don’t get close enough to investigate.  I have found them in my barn, on an upper window of my shop, and in my greenhouse. 

    This was the first time I spotted one on a birch tree, and it seemed like it was a good place to build it, since it blended in so well to the bark.  There was a constant flow of bees coming and going out of the hole in the nest.

    Most of the ones I have found in the past seem to come to a bad end.  They are usually located high and out of the way, and I don’t disturb them, but often late in the summer, there comes a day when I notice that they have been broken into and torn apart.

    One generally thinks of bears doing that, but in the ones I have seen I suspect it was a bird.  A bear couldn’t have accessed them.  The photo below shows what was left of one of these destroyed nests that was in the rafters of my greenhouse.

You can see my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca