Hornets

Another quiet weekend due to commitments, so I decided to go down to Amwell yesterday. Not much was likely to be happening, but it's been some time since I had seen any of the Sunday regulars so it was likely to be more social than anything else.
Phil had a nice surprise in his pocket-his moth trapping had produced a Jersey Tiger, one of the target species for the weekends National Moth Night.
Birds were not really happening. All of the ducks were in eclipse and so not looking all that great and the warblers tits and so on were being rather quiet and skulking in the bushes and reeds. There were two Common Sandpipers present, and a very brief Green Sandpiper (all the summering waders bar lapwing had departed after successful breeding)  and although difficult to locate, the drake Wigeon was located. A couple of juvenile Little Egrets were also present.
Dragonflies were flying despite it being rather cloudy and breezy. my first Migrant hawkers of the year were patrolling the approach track,l Brown Hawkers were present all over the reserve, and I also saw my first Common Darters. Common Blue Red Eyed and Blue Tail Damsels were seen but numbers were low. I had hoped to find the Emeralds that had been seen earlier in the week-rare at Amwell but present further down the Lea Valley, but i did not find them.
The usual butterflies were seen, the various whites and browns, Peacocks in large numbers on the,
buddleas with some Commas and Red Admirals and Speckled Woods. John Bartlett mentioned that he had seen Small Copper and Brown Argus on Hollycross which was rather annoying as all I managed to see there was a Common Blue.
Tony suggested that while trying to find the Emeralds on the boardwalk to White Hide that I check the rotten stumps as there was a very active Hornets nest. I spent about twenty minutes watching the workers come and go from very close range and tried with little success to get a decent flight shot. The lighting was not ideal , and being so close with the 300mm depth of field was very limited, and as a result most of the images were out of focus or blurred.
Here are a couple of reasonable ones.