At long last the twain have met² – Very "distant" cousins, with similar interests, around the same table (new tab, 42 seconds)
The venue, a collosal flowering ivy (new tab), was simply alive with hornets. The vine is one of their favourite haunts at a time of the year (late November) when other food sources are thin on the ground*.
As you can see from the video, the European hornet (the only one I could see) hardly moved from where it was whereas the Asian hornets (hundreds of them) were darting around all over the place which made them very difficult to capture. In another video, one of the Asian hornets came straight at me and swerved away at the very last moment. I only realized it after the event on playback!
At first glance, the two hornets in my montage may appear to be very similar in size. However, for the second photo I was closer to the flower cluster thus making the European hornet the larger of the two. Everything is relative. And size is SO important.
The European queen is nearly twice as big as her Asian counterpart (see below). Life is so unfair. 🙁
Zoom in for greater detail.
The gear! (new tab) – Shh!!! Mum’s the word!
Take great care, my friends, and many, many thanks for calling,
Colin … (ツ)
* thin on the ground = plutôt rare
¹ Reference to the Cold War between the Eastern Bloc and the
Western Bloc.
² Reference to "The Ballad of East and West" by Rudyard Kipling
concerning the gulf between two cultures; the East (India) and
the West (Britain).
"… and never the twain shall meet"
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Posted by kittymax on 2021-02-01 19:20:00
Tagged: , Montage_3000a
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