Foerageersucces van een multitaskende Wespendief Pernis apivous

In Drenthe, along the edge of a small heath in woodland, an adult female Honeybuzzard was intermittently observed for two hours on 9 August 2016. Within this time frame, she detected at least two wasp colonies, one of Dolichovespula saxonica underneath the roof of a solitary house in woodland, the other of Vespula vulgaris in the ground in a nearby beech Fagus sylvatica stand 100 m away. The Dolichovespulanest was detected within a minute of her taking up position within 15 m of the nest (perhaps earlier, from another position), but was impossible to depredate (nest inaccessible from the outside). The vulgaris-nest, at a distance of 90 m from her sitting post, was detected shortly afterwards, then visited and depredated in several bouts (small colony close to surface, two combs of 65 and 57 mm diameter, both emptied). During the entire episode the female intently watched the environment and sky, spotting and tracking the worker’s traffic (for the Dolichovespula-nest, traffic rate – the number of workers entering and leaving the nest - was 85 per 5 minutes, as recorded on 9 August at 15.00 h), meanwhile tending her plumage (preening, sunning) and listening (the postman’s arrival some 200 m away was distinctly noticed by hearing, as evident from the shifting position of her head and freezing). Even a slight movement of the observer sufficed to alert the bird when she approached the house to check out the Dolichovespula-nest. Clearly, Honey-buzzards are multi-taskers, showing several behaviours at the same time, and even so highly efficient foragers.