Wasp nest revealed

The maple leaves are changing color and falling rapidly, but this isn't really a sign of early fall... it's more the result of the drought and the "decision" on the part of the maples—birches do this as well—to give up their foliage well before it's time, rather than face a potential fatal disaster due to water loss. The color, when they do this, isn't very vibrant, but there is one advantage for the observer: you can spot and document things that had been hidden in the canopy all season, nests in particular. So that's where all those White-faced Hornets were coming from this summer, I thought, as I noticed the huge nest in a maple in the meadow across the street. The tough, gray-paper structure, made from wasp spit and chewed-up wood fibers, many of them delicately stripped off of my cedar shingles, was impressive, and it was still in use. (If you look close, there's a wasp at about 11 o'clock.) Soon enough, of course, the hard frosts will take all of the inhabitants save one, the Queen, who will go into hiding beyond the reach of the color. She's already full of sperm enough to start up a new White-faced generation come spring—and start the entire home-building process all over again.