Sallow

The combination of a crazily busy morning and the current round of stormy weather had me feeling almost unhinged by lunchtime. A loathing of high winds isn't new for me - in my early 20's I lived in Milton Keynes, which is build on a plateau, and the half-mile walk to work, into the teeth of the almost constantly prevailing gale, would sometimes bring me close to tears - but since I took up macro photography I've come to feel windy weather as a personal slight by the weather gods. Still, I didn't get where I am today by exercising basic common sense, so I persisted, and wound up with about five hundred frames on the memory card, of which a dozen and a half have been worth keeping.

When I saw this little mining bee clinging to one of the wildly blowing leaves of a tayberry cane I couldn't immediately identify it, and I'm still not positive about it now, but Obsidentify thinks, and after an hour's research I'm inclined to agree, that it's one of the sallow miners - either Andrena praecox or Andrena apicata. The females of both species are very hairy, with two-tone faces and pale pollen brushes, and when fresh they're tawny on the top of the thorax. Because they're mainly distinguished by size they're hard to tell apart in the field, but my sense of this female having been roughly the size of a honey bee, plus the hint of black hair at the end of her abdomen, makes me lean towards the Large Sallow Mining Bee, Andrena apicata.

I've asked for confirmation of the identification from BWARS, but haven't yet heard back. As and when I know more, I'll let you know.