A bridge and a stream. What more could Organ Pipe Mud-dauber Wasps (Trypoxylon politum) need than shelter from the rain and a source of their building material?
Well, spiders, of course. These wasps paralyze spiders to feed their young inside these mud-nests. Here’s an interesting observation: Tufted Titmouse and Downy Woodpeckers breaking into these to get the larval wasps. And also the spiders?
I don’t seem to have a photograph of one of these wasps. I’ve sure seen a similar species, the Black and Yellow Mud-daubers (Sceliphron caementarium). They’re particularly photogenic, or just hang around long enough for photographs. They also feed their young spiders.
(Click on image above to make it fill your screen if not your speakers.)
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Well, if you think I’m a worse case scenario-ist, read this on the effects of the return to Miocene-level global temperatures for the centuries to come. We’re remaking the planet like it was 16 million years ago!
Backyard and Beyond 
Appropriate title 🙂