Mini wasps (vespula rufa) ....

13th September 2021 (Monday)     07.30 .... A strange thing happened this

morning when I went to have a shower;  this was at 05.45.   I decided to switch on the kettle and by the time I got back to the bathroom, the outside of the bathroom window was covered with small wasp like insects;  just like normal wasps but half the size.... attracted by the light..   I went for the camera, and on the way back with camera, I noticed that the back door was also covered with the small wasps.... I imagine between the bathroom window and the back door there must have been a nigh on a hundred of them; obviously there’s a nest of them someplace.   Anyway I got a few photographs.... and they have all disappeared.   I’ll be cleaning the back door glass, inside and out.... with the camera set up for them tomorrow morning.

21.30   Emily and John arrived, about 10.30, and we had a quick cuppa, then went to the harbour for a potter around, before going to the ‘Ship Inn’ for lunch at 13.30.   As ever ‘The Ship’ was busy,... I got a pleasant surprise to find Oliver ‘on duty’ .... and the food was, as always, excellent.    We had a slow walk back to the car, moored up at the Disabled parking space, at the Sailing Club.   It was a bonnie afternoon  and the harbour area was busy.

John, John (JB) and Emily.

Back at Ivy the troops decided that the beach had to be visited after a quick cuppa.    By this time the sky was clouding over and the wind had freshened so it was fairly cool on the beach.     John and ‘JB’ did some ‘beach draining’ at the Cockstail Rocks, while ‘Em’ had a kip on the beach.   I eventually bumbled my way down to take a few photies;  and it was only a few as the camera battery  went ‘pfffffft’, and the spare was in the bag:  which was in Ivy, so that was the end of the photo session.

On the way to the beach I met Anne and Andrew working in the ‘dungeon’ of the Town Hall:  what a difference they have made down there;  it is now a useful space!    Maggie used to worry about the future of the auld Royal Burgh, but she needn’t have done so:  her ‘Auld village’ is in the safe hands of the new generation of  ‘Ferry folk’.    The Earlsferry part of the united villages isn’t going to be lost and forgotten. 

The wasps I had this morning are Red Wasps (vespula rufa).... and are found all over the

UK.  Strangely enough Fife is one of the places where they haven’t been recorded very often.... this is the first time that I have seen them.    The back door glass has been cleaned, just in case they are around tomorrow morning.