Sizzled Synapses

Another very hot and very humid day. Fortunately, throughout the morning hours, thin clouds shielded us from the blazing spearpoints of the sun. Even still, without direct sunlight, the temperature reached the upper 80s by late morning when I visited the Cerceris fumipennis nesting site at St Olaf. For a half hour, I paced about the gravel of the practice field, ready for the wasps to take flight and return with their captured beetles. Instead, they seemed content to wait for more favorable conditions, simply hanging out at the entrance to their nests, peering placidly at the bright, yet overcast sky. Several diminutive males made the rounds. Not much else happened. I could see blue sky at the horizon to the northwest (perhaps the wasps could as well?), so I decided to leave and return later if the clouds passed.

By 1:30 the sun was out, the sky solidly blue, the afternoon sweltering. Surely the wasps would be active now. I grabbed my net and several vials for beetles and resumed my vigil at the practice field. There was even less activity than before! The wasps had departed from the nest entrances and, at first, I took this to be a good sign, that they were off procuring beetles. But as the minutes ticked by no wasps returned. Heat mirages distorted the landscape. Sweat stung my eyes. My purpose, my patience thinned and melted away; a molten disenchantment pooled in its place. The connection between earth and sun glittered and sparked like sizzled synapses. I left the ball field beaten, shut out.

Publicado el julio 6, 2017 03:13 MAÑANA por