Great Golden Digger Wasp!

Upon returning home from a walk, I noticed a Great Golden Digger Wasp fly onto the front walk. She was carrying a Drumming Katydid. Based upon the loose dirt on the ground, a tunnel had recently been dug by the Digger Wasp.

Having paralyzed her prey, she dropped the Katydid and returned to the underground chamber to make final preparations for egg laying.

She temporarily left her prey unattended, leaving it open to theft by birds. My presence probably kept other predators away. She emerged from her tunnel, grabbed the katydid and dragged it down the hole but was too fast for me to capture it with my camera. Back in August I watched a Digger Wasp dig a tunnel in the garden but didn't witness it carrying an insect. I learned that after capture, she will paralyze it, carry it back to the nest chamber and lay an egg on the prey. Once the egg hatches, it will have fresh food to eat and grow. Life in nature is tough!

Green Herons

Green Herons have mostly migrated south from our area. Here are some photos I took recently as a heron hunted in front of me. It only caught a tiny minnow in the 20 minutes that I watched.