A new generation

This was a most exciting find.  At the City Nature Challenge Bioblitz at Gosforth Park Nature Reserve on Saturday our visitors were encouraged to find things for identification and recording and one little girl found this!

It is a queen hornet (Vespa crabro) just emerging from hibernation.  Last year was the first time hornets have ever been documented this far north, almost 100km north of the previous limit of their range.  This is the first evidence that any has survived and shows there is a good chance they may establish locally.  We now have to hope this queen will successfully found a new nest and that there are others.  To encourage them we have built and installed a hornet nest box in the reserve so let's hope one of them likes it and moves in.

If we do see more you can be sure to read about it here.