Wet winter

Finally a break in all the rain. This December has been wetter than any I can remember, but today we've had a few hours of blue sky.
Over the last ten days the Cych has come over its banks three or four times, but so far the floodwater has mostly found its way back to the river. Taking a walk along the river this morning it was striking to see how much has been changed by the force of the water; tree boughs ripped clean off, log dams shifted and sections of bank eaten away.

It was good to see the sun, if only for an hour or two, and to see what has to be the first sign that spring's on the way. In places the soil has been scoured away by the floodwater to reveal clumps of snowdrop bulbs, each with a spike of green.
Back home I've been bringing in more wood for the fire, which is now a more time-consuming chore because each bit has to be checked for uninvited guests. On Christmas Day I brought a basketful of wood in and soon after we were chasing a wasp around the kitchen.
Drowsy at first, it was soon fully awake and ready for a fight. After a chase from room to room I caught it with a glass and took it out to the wood shed.
A second wasp turned up an hour or so later, but by then I was too busy with turkey and roast potatoes to go hunting. It turned up dead in the sink when the time came for washing up.
Now each log is getting the once over. I think it's better for both us and them that their sleep remains undisturbed.

Good neighbours?

It's probably a little too late in the year to be giving nestboxes their MOT, but yesterday I noticed that my sparrow 'terrace' box was looking the worse for wear. It's old and the roof had a crack in it that has to be letting the rain in.
So, out came the ladder and down came the box. Getting the roof off wasn't easy as the screws were badly rusted and when I took it off I wasn't sure what I was going to find inside; I knew it had been used last summer, but didn't now whether chicks were raised successfully.
But it turned out to have two nests inside - one a neat, little sparrow nest and another, a wasps' nest the size of a grapefruit. Quite a surprise. 
I wonder if the sparrow chicks found that all that buzzing going on next door kept them awake. Or maybe it was soothing and lulled them to sleep.

Nest dilemma

We're having a good nest year this year. The wrens produced a brood in the garage and there are now swallows in there too. Great tits have come and gone from the nest box on the old apple tree and, to my great surprise the sparrow 'terrace' box has finally been used.

I've had it for three years now and have tried it in different places around the garden, but it has never attracted much interest. But it's now on the back of the big shed and has sparrows in residence - if you stand close by you can hear the nestlings.

There is one nest that's not quite so welcome. With all this rain I haven't been in and out of the little shed as much as I would usually, which is probably why I didn't notice the wasp nest until today.

It's on the back of the door and is a little bigger than a golf ball. While I was taking these pictures I didn't see any sign of the queen coming and going, which seems strange.

Shouldn't she be feeding the growing grubs? Below the nest hole there are lots of black droppings, so I'm assuming the grubs are alive and growing.

So is this an abandoned starter nest? Perhaps the queen has died during all that rain. And should I destroy the nest before it becomes a problem?

I think it might be the sensible thing to do. If the colony did grow and thrive the shed would have to be off limits for the rest of the summer - at least for the children.

But I can't quite bring myself to do it. I'm interested to see what happens next.