Constructing with Mud

From somewhere nearby, the female Organ-pipe Mud-Dauber gathers a ball of mud. She flies back to the nest, where the male can just glimpsed inside the developing tube. Rather unusually, the male of this species stick around to protect the young. There are parasitic flies and wasps eager to get into the spider-stocked chambers within these mud tubes.

You can see the mud ball pretty well in these last two images. This wasp is a little smaller than the locally more common Yellow-legged Mud-dauber/Sceliphron caementarium, and, consequently, the mud ball she carries is smaller.

The pale parts of the back legs are distinctive on this otherwise all black wasp.

One ball of mud makes for half an arch. The head of the male is now more visible.