Hi Bertie.

Buying a bat detector: there are many to chose from.

https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/bat-detectors-1/buying-a-bat-detector 

There is a terrific one for an i-pad. [I don't have it!] Look and drool!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Echo-Meter-Touch-Detector-Android/dp/B076VHLCC5 

Best starting point is your local bat group. Go to a Bat Watch and see what they get up to.

Re the relationship between fruit/food availability and insect numbers: I will offer you a possible suggestion to research. Larval wasps are carnivorous and are fed on insects/larvae by the workers. Adult worker wasps on the other hand are attracted to carbohydrates - like nectar, honeydew, stolen honey and that jam pot or can of coke - and of course ripe and rotting fruit. At the end of a summer, a good insect year [food for larvae] will also have a good adult wasp population. A bad insect year is often also a bad fruit year due to poor pollination and/or bad weather. There will therefore be fewer adult wasps chasing after less fruit. So there is a relationship, but it is functional and real, a consequence rather than intuition.  Make sense? Here's some general stuff on Wasps:

British wasp guide: how to identify common species, lifecycle and why wasps sting

https://www.countryfile.com/wildlife/insects-invertebrates/british-wasp-guide-how-to-identify-common-species-lifecycle-and-why-wasps-sting-in-autumn 

Same observation here, I suppose only 30-40 miles away. Anyone, say, in East Anglia who could comment?

This observation is not necessarily related to the size of wasp population so much as the timing of maturation of the last hatch and the related spreading out of workers in search of carbohydrates to feed on. They no longer have larvae to feed, they soon will die, meanwhile they want to eat. The significant question is how many queens have been produced, getting ready to hibernate. That will have an effect on next year's start-up population.

https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs/bug-directory/common-wasp/ 

Worker females searching for carbohydrate food before they die. The end of the wasp season approaches. Next year's wasp population will now be down to hibernating queens - the big wasps you will sometimes find trying to hide in you house or shed.

R.

Without going to the trouble (and risk!) of catching and measuring a wasp, it seems to me that the wasps I have seen this year have been smaller than normal.

I note from Wiki that both Vespula vulgaris (common wasp) and V. germanica (german or paper wasp, from its habit of building paper nests) are both frequently found in the UK, but that V. vulgaris workers measure up to 17mm long whereas V. germanica workers are typically 13mm long. Am I reading too much into a chance observation by thinking that  V. germanica is more common this year?

Queens btw are typically 20mm long.

Given the number and variety of wasp species you may have to use Occam's Razor! I've not seen enough wasps this year to answer that, nor a single queen wasp since the spring! Small wasps are most likely to be female workers and there are many of these seen most years, especially end of summer into autumn. Big wasps are most likely to be queens, fewer, and for me they are especially few and far between this year. If you want a measurement you may have to catch one. The "faces" are helpful. V. vulgaris has a "black nose stripe", V. germanica a "black nose dot"! For help see:

https://www.bigwaspsurvey.org/the-wasps/ 

https://www.eakringbirds.com/eakringbirds2/insectswaspsidentification.htm 

Is this where they get drunk on fermented fruit, then become proper aggy?

Yes, I heard they do. That's when they're a pain.

Yes - they will even get pissed on fermenting "honeydew". They are hungry and dying with only a few days to go - after a lifetime of feeding and raising lots of someone else's offspring. How would you deal with it? A tad grumpy? 😬

This is what Tad Grumpy can mean:

Man stung 160 times after wasps invade his home

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0nwz82x4wo 

Interesting article Roger.

It says qu: If you are stung you should pull out any stings left in the skin

 I'm not a hymenoptera specialist by any means (I leave that to you- I do mycota), but I thought that wasps (unlike bees) retained their stings after stinging.

It also quotes a pro as saying qu: Wasps normally only sting if they feel threatened

I remember an abdominal sting I received in 2003 could be the wasp being trapped under my T shirt but I've also received a sting on the back of my neck whilst walking to work in 1989. Do you think I might have wandered into territory or unwittingly brushed a plant etc?

I remember these events as they both caused large, week-long swellings and quite a bit of pain.

Well done, Bert - you are exactly right. Wasps can and do deliver multiple stings. Honeybees in contrast are kamikaze amazons, leaving a detached sting pumping venom into the victim. They go off to die. However, there are many bee species to which this generalisation does not apply. More information;

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/insects-invertebrates/bee-vs-wasp-whats-the-difference 

This is (sort of) me- in schools for a lifetime. Grumpy yes, and drinking fermented stuff whenever possible- which is as soon as the sun is over the yardarm now I'm a retiree.

"Retire when the work is done. That is the way of heaven!" [Lao Tzu]

We've also heard the owls, there's at least two in the area, and watched the bats flying at night, after the easy smorgasbord available, of flying insects attracted by the outside lamps. It's great here. There's also some deer living in their woodland but we've been too noisy for them to show themselves  to us just yet, but we have heard them and seen the signs that they are about. The family cat has been keeping the small rodents away from the house the last two days as well, but leaving them outside our Gite! At least she's doing her job I guess.

Keep an eye out for Pied Flycatchers, Caz. They are on the move. I've had about 36 reports today along the Lincs coast.

https://eurobirdportal.org/ebp/en/#home/FICHYP/p52weeks 

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/pied-flycatcher 

https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/pied-flycatcher 

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wryneck 

I've just looked it up.  It was once a common breeding bird across the UK, which is something I didn't know. Someone from the C17th would often see one, now they are an rare passage migrant. Lets keep our fingers crossed we don't lose more common migratory birds - though I think of the wood warbler and nightingale...

The same cat killed an adult blackbird two years ago (the scream it made as it died remains with me), and it's nabbed one of the pigeons too - my neighbour's dog dove into a bush and pulled out the remains.

Infuriating, frankly, not only do cats leave piles of parasite-ridden poo for you to tread in, they infect between a third and a quarter of the UK population with a brain parasite (which modifies behaviour in other animals to make them less fearful of cats). They then kill the birds in my garden, something replicated across the country.

Poxy things. The sooner we follow Australia's laws and require them to be kept indoors, or in a "catio", the better. "Oh, but they need to be outside", the cat-lovers say... (or, in other words, our pets are your problem). Well, by that token, dogs would love to roam in packs and kill or injure small animals, like cats, but we don't let them. It's the price paid for domestication of an animal, they lose their wild liberty but gain comfy accommodation and veterinary care in exchange.

Since then it’s rained and rained, on two days almost all day. ‘How are they managing to feed their chicks? To catch insects in this lot’ I wondered.

This evening I’ve had time to do a bit of checking and watching. I couldn't see any chicks in the nests. I’ve seen no house martin or swallows all day. But at sunset…I saw three, then four all gently sailing on the breeze, quite high up (‘that’ll be the adults at least’, I thought, ‘but where are the chicks?’). I waited, several minutes passed, then a saw eight, ten, and a swallow! (I though they had gone), then more, so many I couldn’t count them (above twenty it get very difficult, it become educated guesswork). Then more swallows, maybe our three pairs, hard to tell at the speed they move. Then, they sky goes empty again.

It gets darker, more, many more, than twenty appear again (perhaps as many as 30?), swirling lower but at speed, and then the irritated noise only a hirundine wanting to go in a nest can make.

I left them to it thinking how blessed we are to have such fantastic, almost symbiotic, birds share our home and how lucky we are to care for them..and how amazing it is they’ve manages to fledge chicks in the recent weather! At the moment it is ‘fare well my friends’ soon it will be ‘farewell my friends and I hope to see you next year’ Bravo to all of them!

I learnt that there are more than just seagulls (dry humour alert) and we spotted these other species on the list link. Lots of LBJ's.

I know a few of the others but my knowledge is at basic level.

https://ebird.org/hotspot/L8394530/bird-list?yr=curM 

No white tailed sea eagles this time, though these tend to turn up in the winter in this Bay.

Our lemon tree was distressed by the recent lower temps - she had been looking splendid earlier. Maybe time to wrap her up for winter?

Thinking of insects - we have only seen single worker wasps and honeybees this year in a garden usually teeming with insects. A Red Admiral and 2 Small Tortoiseshells yesterday - the Torts checking our windows with a view to hibernation. A recent visit to one of our favourite limewoods was almost fungus-free'. Just a couple of "little brown nasties". The forest floor was very dry indeed. No hedgehogs on camera last night.

Dates when I've recorded ivy first coming into flower in this area: 24/9/08, 9/9/09, 15/9/11, 19/9/12, 7/9/14, 20/9/15, 15/9/16, 20/9/17 , 29/8/18, not recorded 2019/2020, 3/10/22, 6/9/23, 14/9/24. Not systematic, but I normally get out for a longish country walk once a week.