Well the mining bees are turning up thick and fast and testing the depths of my rusty knowledge. Unfortunately a lot of them are coming up as unidentifiable or suggestions from the likes of iNaturalist or Google Lens are inconsistent or contaminated by American sources.
However one particular lead has struck gold as it appears I may have seen a bit of a rarity - the red-girdled mining bee.
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| Red-girdled Mining Bee |
This has been confirmed as feasible by a local expert who now thinks it may have been under reported in the North East as previously thought only to occur on the Spetchells. But it occurred to me that I had seen something very similar at the Calaminarian Grassland near Wylam three years ago, when I thought it was a blood bee.
Anyway it has been turning up in the garden regularly (sunshine permitting.) Here's an attempted close-up in the bug box:-
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| Close-up |
This came from a video that I accidentally stopped after four seconds... Doh!
Otherwise a degree of confusion reigns over visiting mining bees in terms of establishing what kind of mining bee is visiting, for example this one:
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| Mining Bee |
Or this one:
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| Mining Bee |
... whereas this one could be the first honey bee of the year or another mining bee.
What seems clear from the number I get plus nomads and beeflies is that there must be a promised land of mining bees nearby. Old maps of the area where I live are interestingly marked "sewage works."
By contrast the plentiful red mason bees are easy to spot. They are starting to show some tentative interest in the bug hotel and still great fans of the summer house.
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| Red Mason Bee |
Unfortunately one silly red mason bee managed to fall into a bucket of water, after which I fortunately managed to rescue it and found a sunny spot so it could dry off before flying again.
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Nevertheless, I still managed to get confused by one item.
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| Unidentified |
This has the shape of a red mason bee but appears a good deal darker. I wondered if it was a male but not convinced.
Not a great photo anyway.
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