I found the oddities pictured above in a small pile beneath the mouse nest from my shed. It seems to be a small collection of hollow pots apparently made out of mud and with a hole in the end of each one. They're only about 7mm long each.
Question is – what are they? I have my own favoured best guess, but I thought I'd throw this out to the masses. So have at it in the comments!
Update: I believe that Rachel is bang on the money in the comments when she wonders if they are cocoons built by wasps. I've struggled to find particularly good information, especially UK-centric, but it seems most likely these are the work of some sort of mud dauber wasp. They create a a cocoon from mud then put an egg and a paralysed spider in it as food for the larva. Eventually the young wasp breaks out and the cycle repeats. However the images I've found on the web (e.g. the mud pots hiding in a roof rack) are generally not quite like these ones. Can anybody provide a more positive identification?
Not a clue…. I did watch a wasp building a small mud capsule against the house wall once, on a hot day; it was a tiny, perfect little creation, and lasted throughout the winter. The following Spring, the solitary offspring hatched and cut its way out, leaving a neat little hole. Delightful!