Ashy Bee

If you are not in your garden between April and June you could miss the flight of this Grey Mining Bee. I have never noticed this grey bee before but then again I wasn't doing blip this time last year!

It is a female identified by the bands on her thorax and she builds her nest burrowing into lawns and flowerbeds. The nest is apparently easy to spot as she excavates down throwing up a tiny conical mound of soil. The male dies after mating, the larva hatch within days and pupate after a few weeks. Not until next spring will we see the adults as they then hibernate.

However I spotted this tiny little bee like fly half the size of my little finger nail, landing on the grass as well. There are 2 images there to look at if you are interested. Sitting with it I could see something was going on but had no idea what! The bee like fly is the bee mimic Bombylius Major and she flicks her eggs towards the entrance to the nest of the solitary bees which then feed on the larvae of the real bee. Very clever but it does mean that other pollinators numbers dwindle! All action in our garden then!!!

Back to the eggs on the lawn! Yoga tonight to look forward to though!

Massive thank yous to everyone commenting yesterday on my robin who was working his socks off today :))

This shot is SOC apart from cropping!