Although usually very happy to attract wildlife to my garden I’d
have reservations about playing host to wasps’ nests. We’ve had
them in the garden before, usually finding the nest after it has been abandoned
when you can admire the wonderful wood pulp weaving artistry of the nests
with their spiralling patterns resembling photographs of the planet Jupiter.
As I mentioned before we’ve preserved some wasps nests held together
with liberal quantities of hair spray and they’re wonderful demonstrations
of animal architecture. I’ve also got a collection of Blue Tit’s
nests taken from nest boxes in the garden (the way they’re compressed
could give the impression that blue tits build square nests) kept in the
greenhouse and late one summer wasps began to build their nest on top of
one of those. Anyway it’s one thing having wasps nest in the garden
but an entirely different matter when they’re in or very near the house.
In early summer last year before the warm weather took a downward turn we’d
noticed a large wasp, evidently a queen, flying into a space between the
hall door frame and the rough granite facing on the wall. Couldn’t
imagine there would be much space in there to build a nest and after half
hearted attempts to block the space didn’t think too much about it.
The weather turned cool and wet and summer moved on and it was quite a surprise
when we noticed a string of wasps flying in and out of the little space.
They rarely came into the house flying in and out of the nest with great
purpose (you could say ‘making a bee line’ to the nest), very
diligent workers who were all in bed by dusk. We were never stung by them
though they did sting the dog a couple of times after which she kept well
away from them. But it was quite intimidating having wasps flying by one’s
ear or clipping your hair and clothes as they buzzed past and you’d
literally keep your mouth shut going out, a gobful of wasp being a unhealthy
prospect! It was also a big a cause of concern for any visitors. It was interesting,
and a little alarming to find out that when you kill an individual wasp it
sends out a signal to the rest of the hive who will become very aggressive.
Reluctantly I got a chemical spray whose name Wasp Nest Destroyer in bold
yellow type out of a black background left no doubt about its purpose. The
warning notices on the can stated it should only be sold to local authorities
or pest specialists, you shouldn’t inhale it, you should wash any clothes
that got contaminated and immediately wash off any that got on your skin.
Wearing a medical face mask under a scarf wrapped tightly around my face
I sneaked up on the nest at night and sprayed the deadly chemical into the
entrance almost emptying the container into it. I didn’t get any pleasure
out of doing it but knew if the nest had been disturbed and we’d had
a confrontation with the wasps we were heavily outnumbered and would have
came out worse. I’d watched them a few times piling into the opening
at dusk, hundreds probably thousands of them and if they’d came into
the house it could have been disastrous. In the morning I was surprised to
see a few wasps buzzing around on the wrong side of the entrance looking
as if they were trying to get in but evidently repelled by the chemical residue.
I wondered if all the wasps in the nest actually stay in it at night or maybe
there wasn’t enough room and they slept somewhere else in the garden
returning to work in the morning. A few of them looked dazed but quite a
few looked healthy enough and by the following evening it was business as
usual, dozens of wasps coming and going. The nest must have been well in
under the floorboards far enough
away from the deadly spray. Eventually I thought, well it’s nearly
the end of the summer and they’ll be gone soon, we’ll wait it
out. At the end of their breeding season all the wasps die off apart from
the queens who leave the nest, survive the winter then start a new nest.Thought
they’d be gone in late summer but there were still lots of them there
in October and if any ‘trick or treaters’ had arrived before
dark at Halloween they might have got a nasty response. The mild autumn weather
probably caused their prey to survive while the nest itself was probably
near a central heating pipe so no chance they were going to freeze at night.
I heard a radio DJ reading out letters about wasps and one said the latest
the writer had removed a live nest was on Christmas Eve! Ours were there
in early December but didn’t make it through to the New Year and thankfully
didn’t stay to share the holiday with us.
Elder berries are highly desired by birds and usually the bush
is cleared of them in early autumn by hungry blackbirds and wood pigeons.
The last week of December seemed very early to have new leaves unfolding
on an Elder bush although this bush was towards the east side of Dalkey Hill
in the milder mini climate of Killiney Bay above Vico Road. It is on the
Vico Road where for years I’ve seen the first unfolding buds on a Horse
Chestnut tree though that isn’t usually till the early days of March
so don’t know if this is another indication of global warming or just
a plant that’s found a warm niche for itself . The Little Egret, in
appearance like a snow white heron with black legs and yellow feet would
have been a cause of great excitement if it was seen in Ireland fifteen years
ago but now they breed in many counties and they can be seen almost anywhere
there’s water, even in the little stream behind Spar in Deansgrange.
A recent winter count in Booterstown Marsh, constantly improving as a feeding
and roosting area, had more then 1600 hundred Knot, a small plump wading
bird and over 1,000 Dunlin but if you’re passing on a dart the bird
that’s most likely to stand out, especially on dull winter days, is
the Little Egret. Many people who leave out food for birds in their garden
were saying earlier this winter they didn’t have many birds
coming to their feeders. It might be down to the mild weather but it’s
often noticed that birds become more reliant on food left out for them only
after their wild food has run out when all the choicest berries are gone
and the insects are hibernating or have died off, so if you have been putting
out peanuts and sunflower seeds keep doing so as they could be most useful
now for birds survival. I’d seen Blackcaps in the bird bath and foraging
in bushes in late autumn but it was only in the bitter cold days of January
that they began to feed on the halved apples I’d left out. Siskins
are another species which are more commonly seen in gardens after Christmas
although once they do arrive they might stay till April before returning
to conifer woods to breed. Usually facing downwards when feeding on peanut
holders they’re very busy little birds often chattering from nearby
trees and bushes. It’s thought a lot of the siskins that come to our
gardens are actually visitors from the continent.
New and very welcome visitors to my garden this winter were a pair of Jays
who perched in an apple tree seemed to check out the peanut feeders but didn’t
take any. Hope they’ll be back. They’re still to be seen on Killiney
Hill but being secretive often just seen as a fleeting glimpse of a blue
wing flash or white rump patch. The Brent Geese that fly from Sandymount
to Wicklow every day and back again in the evening will continue to grow
in number peaking in late March or early April before they all fly off north
to breed in Arctic Canada. Their food will have got scarce around Dublin
Bay and it’s evidently worth the energy they burn off on the long return
journey in return for the food they’ll get in Wicklow. They fly down
along the coast through Dalkey Sound across Killiney Bay and down to Kilcoole
and Newcastle on the coast where they will spend the day grazing in fields,
sometimes in either of the Birdwatch Ireland reserveswhere they’ll
be undisturbed. It seems a long roundabout journey to make every day but
they feel safer from predators spending the night by the coast in big flocks
at Sandymount Strand or on the Bull Island so that brings them back up again
every evening. There have been large numbers of Brent coming to Ireland this
year and they had a very good breeding season last year with lots of juveniles
returning with them. Although they go down in the morning in little groups
they often come back all together very near dusk. Often it’s nearly
dark when they return and you’ll hear them honking before you see them.
It’s a spectacular sight seeing thousands of geese appearing out of
the gloom in flying V’s. Sorrento Park and Colimore Harbour are good
places to see them from.
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