Bees are Back

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It seems like so long, but the first bees are back in the garden, with sunny days meaning we have some spring bees. A few bumble bees, honey bees on the heather, mini-mining bees on the daffodils and this male Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis) sunbathing on the willow tree. It seems quite early for this species, right at the end of Feb, but then it was a lovely warm afternoon and the smaller males do appear a couple of weeks before the females.

Not for want of looking, but this is the first thing worth a mention that I’ve seen all month, except a few un-photographed birds. Even the moth trap has drawn a blank on its two excursions so far this year, but if it stays warm it looks like I’ll be giving it another go soon.

#575 Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis)

#575 Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis)

Miners, Masons & Nomads

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Last year seemed a bumper year for bees, but this year the apple tree didn’t blossom and thanks to the warm dry weather the flowering season for many of the plants in the garden seemed short. As a result there were less mining bees around than previous years. None the less, in the end I saw most of the same bee species as last year, and even added a couple new ones.

Star of the show was a Red-girdled Mining Bee (Andrena labiata, #571) which turned up one day on the yellow wallflowers. This is not such a common bee, but apparently it likes speedwells, of which I have four kinds in my lawn, so hopefully it’ll stick around. Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria) and Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva) were also around during April. Lastly I added Red Mason Bee (Osmia bicornis, #575) to the garden list, investigating holes in the wall as potential nesting places.

Following the mining bees, there were some nomad bees. Marsham's Nomad Bee (Nomada marshamella, #481), with it’s broken yellow band seemed the commoner one this year, but this male Flavous Nomad Bee (Nomada flava, #463) obligingly flew in through the window.