Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Mud Daubed

I photographed this mud nest on June 20th.
This Yellow-legged Mud-dauber was nearby. It was quite possibly the maker of this mud cavity, carefully made after numerous trips to a nearby mud source. Since that time, I’ve passed this spot 3-4 times, each time seeing the cavity still open.

On July 18, I found it sealed off. It is presumably stuffed with paralyzed spiders and a wasp egg. Or two: a kleptoparasite may have gotten in there.

As is often the case with these scales, I didn’t notice the webbing and small spider, much smaller than the type hunted by these wasps, until I looked at this photo.

mthew

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