Orange-tailed/Early Mining Bee (Andrena haemorrhoea)

Dear Readers, my magnificent climbing hydrangea is a magnet for all kinds of mining bees during the few weeks when it’s in flower, and on a warm day it fills the sheltered side of the house with a sweet floral scent. Plus it’s absolutely busting with pollen! No wonder it’s so popular with the bees, and in particular the little mining bees that we normally don’t notice. iThese bees belong to the genus Andrena, and can be tricky to identify to the species level, so feel free to correct me, bee experts! All are hairy-legged (for collecting pollen) which you can see clearly in the photo above, The bees make tunnels in light soils or in the mortar in old walls or buildings, and in the spring the males emerge first. In some species they’ll hang around and wait for the females to emerge, whilst in others they’ll lurk around flowering shrubs that they know the females will visit in a ‘lek’, waiting to grab a mate if she shows any inclination. In some species the males are much bigger than the females, an indication that they’ll fight to mate with as many females as possible. 

The Orange-tailed Mining Bee in the photo above is no surprise as a visitor – it tolerates clay soils as a nesting substrate, and is often found in urban areas. In fact, it was one of the first colonisers of my garden – you can read about it here.

Grey-patched Mining Bee (Andrena nitida) ???

I’m a little less sure about this bee – if it is a Grey-patched Mining Bee it’s one of the commonest mining bees in southern Britain, and I’m surprised I haven’t noticed it before. Again it likes spring-flowering shrubs, but it builds its nests singly, rather than in aggregations like the Orange-tailed Mining Bee. This bee likes formal lawns and sheep-grazed pasture, if you happen to have any handy. 

While I was skipping amongst the hydrangea blossom I noticed the blue tits making a couple of trips to the nest box. Fingers crossed for baby blue tits! I heard my first fledgling starlings and sparrows today too. Spring is peaking!

And finally, here’s a little video of a mining bee enjoying the pollen. It’s so worth spending ten minutes to have a look at who is coming and going in the garden – some of these bees have a very short flying season, so blink and you’ll miss them. And if you’re not sure what they are (and goodness knows I’m often confused) the people over at the UK Bees, Wasps and Ants Facebook ID group are very helpful. Have fun!