As birdwatchers, we are trained to look for things out of the ordinary. That blot in a tree or movement in the brush just may be a bird. Often the thing that grabs your attention is nothing but a discarded balloon or wind-swept plastic bag, but very often it is, indeed, a bird.

Autumn can be tricky with falling leaves capturing our attention and tricking us into thinking birds are near. The other day, a different sort of falling object caught my attention. While it wasn’t a bird, it did lead me to an interesting bird sighting.

I was walking on a trail when something about the size of a leaf floated down in front of me. It somewhat resembled a leaf but was shaped and colored differently. It even floated down from the trees with a different kind of motion.

I recognized it as a piece of a paper wasp nest. I looked up and hanging directly above the trail was, indeed, a wasp nest. A female downy woodpecker was hammering on it and causing the debris to fall onto the trail below. The first frost of the year had occurred a few days before, so apparently the bird felt that the coast was clear.

The woodpecker took advantage of the now-dormant wasp nest to poke around and try to find something to eat. There must have been something in there as the bird remained on the nest for several minutes as I watched from my vantage point along the trail. It could have been larvae, or other insects that had moved in, or perhaps even the queen was still in there. 

It is notable that several birds do eat wasps and bees. While not a primary source of food for many New England birds, blue jays, mockingbirds, orioles, martins and bluebirds are known to eat wasps, particularly while raising young when protein is in high demand

Worker wasps do not survive the winter and die off during the early freezes. The queen, however, will ride out the winter and either hunker down in the nest or find a more stable and safe place like a hole in the ground or rock crevice. She will start a new colony and have a new nest built next year. 

The nest still has uses even if the wasps have moved out and will not use it again next year. In addition to providing a food source for downy woodpeckers (and other birds, I’m sure), the old nest can also serve as a winter roosting spot for small birds such as Carolina wrens or chickadees. 

This particular nest, however, will not be housing any birds this winter. I walked by the same spot on the trail a few days after the sighting, and it was nearly completely destroyed. Only a few scraps of “paper” dangled from the branch. Either the woodpecker continued looking for food until the nest was gone, or something else had come along and finished the job. 

It is interesting how nature works and how everything has a purpose, or in this case, multiple purposes. Who would think an old wasp nest would have benefits for other creatures after the wasps have moved on?