Whenever I visit Corey, I’m always taken by the charming bats that make their home in the rafters of the apartment building in which Corey lives. I think the bats have moved, however, as I’ve seen precious few of them. Bats are sensitive creatures, after all, and Corey’s human neighbors (the ones who seem to have colonized nearly every square centimeter of common space with broom-handles, broken furniture, bikes, mateless shoes, etc.) seem to have sent the local bats looking for…somewhere else to live. To my gleeful, giddy, incredibly-happy surprise, yellow-jackets have not only moved in, but they’ve done so…strategically. I even had the chance to visit with them for a short time, before they realized that I had no iced tea to share with them. As yellow-jackets are…well…blunt (to put it mildly), they completely ignored me. I noticed, however, that they built their nest (a rather sizable one) in a crack leading into the space between the neighors’ outer screen door and inner door. Access to the common patio is now patrolled by…well…largely impeded by yellow-jackets. I find this amusing. I have nothing against Corey’s human neighbors, but I think it’s hilarious that their invasive nature has invited invasion. The little, brightly-colored wasps almost leave Corey alone. Sort of. Well…not really. If they’re feeling generous and gregarious, they’ll use me as a navigational reference, a source of tea or Dr. Pepper…they prefer peach tea (Snapple, not Lipton and were careful to inform me of this, and if Snapple Peach is not available, then I have their permission to purchase Arizona brand “Sweet” tea.) It would seem that word has spread. I’m a source of tea-distribution in the yellow-jacket world, and if I’m not distributing tea, then I’m at least a convenient perch. I was happy to find this particular yellow-jacket: a somewhat young and very cold one. This summer (what little bit of it we’ve had) was hard for quite a few insects. Many hives are stunted, and a few have died, due to mold-invasions. I suspect that there might have been multiple hives in the area of Corey’s patio, but a large number of yellow-jacket corpses indicates a strange, unexpected die-off. This little lady is not one of the victim, and I’m rather happy that she was chilly enough to stand still for a while, before ambling up my finger so that I could place her in a nice, comfy spot of sunlight. I spent a minute or so just letting her walk around my fingers, but I wasn’t able to nab photos of that. I’m proud of this shot, however. Yellow-jackets are so elegant, and look at those 3 nicely polished simple eyes on top of her head! Now that’s elegance. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week/end.