Above you can see that several pieces of bamboo had been manipulated for closer inspection by the beast, and I even found 1 piece of bamboo lying on the ground underneath the bee house.
And here you can see that one bamboo piece (top, right) was "munched" on and split into pieces as the critter devoured the very last of the bee babies in this house. This occurred during the SECOND RAID! Yes, the critter made a repeat visit! Not only does this critter have a mouthpart that can excavate earth and split wood, but it also has a good memory, along with the ability to climb patio posts, scale patio walls (or fly). Hmmmmmm...... this could be a tough mystery to solve.
As you may recall from a previous post, we built 2 new bee houses, and both have since been used by solitary bees. However, the bee nest shown here didn't last long, unfortunately. First you see it (above, lower left) ....... and then you don't (below) :/
To make matters worse, a blackbird nest was ALSO raided the very same week. There were several chicks in the nest - although i never counted because i was waiting for them to get bigger - and these 2 eggs that never hatched. I found the magpie feather a few days later, so don't necessarily want to put the blame on them, but I wouldn't put it past them as they're aggressive nest predators. The upside is that I saw the female actively building a new nest the following day.
So .... if anyone has ideas for WHAT animal could have done this, I'm all ears. Beech martens live in Belgium, and are known to eat insects and raid bird nests:( Woodpeckers are also a possibility ... but they eat like kings at my well-stocked birdfeeders, so you'd think they'd show a little more respect. Maybe one of the juveniles got out of hand or gave into peer pressure. Whatever it was, it will not get the LAST bee nest as I'm protecting the final bee house - by bringing it in our house! Oh boy, wait til Stijn gets home and finds a bee nest next to his bed:)
4 comments:
I have no idea, but I'm laughing hysterically at the thought of Stijn coming home to a bee nest by his bed! Thanks for the great laugh!!
Rochelle
um, court, you're not serious about this, r u?
worried,
L
Wouldn't it be better to build a cage around the nest to keep out the big predators, but still allow in the bees?
"You never can tell with bees."
- W. T. Pooh
-Paul
guess i need to get out more and quit obsessing over the bees .... but you're saying there's more to life?
yes Paul, have since found out that wire mesh will prevent future onslaughts. The culprits are likely TITS (what they call chickadees here), or woodpeckers.
The other day I saw a juvi great spotted woodpecker land just feet from the bee house, and if i wasn't mistaken, it even appeared to be LOOKING down at the bee house. And judging from how the bamboo was split and splintered, I would guess that it likely was a delinquent juvenile. There were 2 VERY ACTIVE juv. woodpeckers in our garden at the time of the raids. Next time I'll know better!
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