Hunting Wasp Drags Spider

The path in my greenhouse is covered with coarse chainsaw dust. Today I found a red wasp dragging a large spider. It was heavy going because the wasp couldn’t get traction with the loose wood fragments. As it tugged at the spider its back legs were working hard and chips were flying. Now and then it stepped aside to rub its head with its front legs. Eventually it got its feet on the edging board and rapidly dragged the spider up the 10cm board and over into a mess of gardening tools.

Trying to get traction.

The wasp's strength is amazing. The spider looks like a grey house spider. It has been paralysed and will remain alive for the wasp’s offspring to feed on.




HERE IS A SHORT MOVIE OF THE STRUGGLE

New Zealand Pigeon

New Zealand Pigeon

The Maori name is kereru

It is puffed up because of the cold wind

Today a native New Zealand pigeon visited my garden. This was such an unheard of event that I did not immediately recognise it. We are a long way from its forest habitat. There has been a sudden cooling of the weather. Perhaps it is migrating to a warmer place. All it wanted was a drink of water and a little rest.

This is a big bird, measuring about 51 cm. Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae.

Rainbow

For the first time in months we had some real rain, earth-soaking rain, relief from the drought. At sunrise the sunlight slipped through a narrow gap in the clouds and lit up the underside of the cloud cover. Then, for a couple of minutes, the most magnificent rainbow appeared. The colours were so intense. The light below the rainbow was so radiant compared to above the bow.

Because of the low angle of the sun the arch was very high. I could not capture the whole of it in one shot. Here are two shots, the first at the climax of the colour, and the second as the sky began to darken.

It was a marvellous experience standing in the rain with that brilliant arch towering above me.

Sheffield Ewe Sale

Due to the drought the Sheffield Ewe Sale was bigger than usual. On offer were some 12000 ewes and a hundred rams. The sale yard had to be extended to accommodate them all. Hopefully, all the sheep went home to different farms tonight.

Click on a photo to see the large version.

Checking out some of the ewes before the sale.

The sale gets under way. A few of the many stock trucks can be seen lined up on the roadside.

The sheep are auctioned pen by pen.

The rams in front take an interest in the proceedings. Their turn will come.

A stock truck driver's mate waits to get back on the road.

Snow In Summer

Mount Torlesse with a recently harvested grain crop

Back Peak and Otarama

The moon over Porter's Skifield

The moon at 6.35 am

Lake Lyndon and Porters Pass

Lake Lyndon was a spectacular colour today.

Lake Lyndon

Lake Lyndon near the West Coast Road

The blue flowers are vipers bugloss and the yellow are birdsfoot trefoil

Coral Broom

Baby Grasshoppers

A Large Grasshopper

A hairy colletid bee escapes into her burrow.

Hairy Colletid Bee

I found this bee outside in my laundry basket. I took some photos of it against the white plastic and then placed it on a sage flower. It dived into the flower to sip the nectar and then rested on an empty calyx.

This is a New Zealand native solitary bee of the Leioproctus family. At 1cm in length it was a lot bigger than the usual solitary bees I see here.

The bee uses the hairy parts to collect pollen, which with nectar, is stored in each nursery chamber with a single egg. The burrows are in soil.