Because I can't even begin to convey the true scale the Beach Wasp activity with this image, imagination will have to be paramount, I'm afraid. I said yesterday that there are thousands of Beach Wasps on Par Sands. I take that back. There are in actual fact, millions! So sayeth he that knoweth all about these wasps. I was lucky yesterday to meet a fabulous chap actually checking them out to see whether they still thrive. I'm happy to report, they do! He estimated their numbers as running into multiple millions, and I have to admit there do seem to be greater numbers this year than ever before. He also puts it down to global warming...that oft used phrase that it would seem many of us still refuse to believe. Because these clever little beasts bury their larva deep, where they remain safely underground during the cold month's, the fact that our last winter was a bit on the chilly side has had no effect on them whatsoever. And because our weather is heating up, these tiny fliers are doing very nicely, thank you very much! ^=^ They also moonwalk! Apparently it is their way of getting rid of evidence of the entrace to their nursery burrow. I watched one yesterday walking backwards over the ground, (swaying her tiny butt like a striped equivalent of Marylin Munroe) which had earlier been a wasp footprint heaven...to another wasp anyway. I can't say I noticed anything! The image shows a small part of Par Sands. Just a tiny part, believe it or not. The tide here goes out almost one quarter of a mile! The sand dunes, are huge and the path to the right of this image is one of the many paths into the dunes from the beach, which was directly behind me as I took this image. There is nowhere within (or without), the dunes where these wasps haven't got a burrow. Even well onto the beach area, which is fairly unusual. Each tiny bump in the photo is a burrow, and there are many that can't be seen because the wasps have hidden any trace of them. They have to do this, I was told, because another wasp - who's name he told me and which I prompty forgot - enters the nest and lays it's own eggs on both the larva and whatever food is there. It's a hard life if you're a wasp! I asked the chap whether or not the vacationers ever complained of getting stung, and was told they don't! These little stripey folk apparently just get on with making sure their lava can survive, so spend most of their time catching flies, catterpillars, spiders (the last image of the three in the centre shows the bottom of one of the spiders the wasp trying, and not actually succeeding, to tug into the burrow!), and generally making a good job of it, if this years crop is anything to go by. Barney and I walk through these dunes every time we come to the beach, and although wasps are manically flying around us, we have never been stung. What I failed to ask, although I meant to, was why their back legs were yellow! It certainly wasn't pollen. I am hoping to see him again, as the study he's carrying out will continue right through the winter until the hatching next year. I hope this gives a small taste of the Beach Wasps. They truly are amazing little stripey folk, and I do so admire them. Because of them flies are nowhere near as bothersome as they would otherwise be, which can never be a bad thing. ^=^ Thank you for taking the time to look. ^=^