Orange-tailed..

Day 293 #365DaysWild

That rare thing this spring - brief sun.

Busy bees in the meadow. On south-facing ground. Thinnest of soil. A sparse sward already showing seedling yellow rattle.

In low meandering flight in the company of others of her species.

Few obvious excavations. These are mining bees - 

Orange-tailed mining bees. Sometimes called the Early mining bee.

Here on dandelion flower. Known as short-tongued bees, they prefer simple flowers.

Each fertilised female will burrow into the sandy soil and lay her eggs. They are not colonial but do congregate together . They produce small ‘volcanoes’ of sand as they excavate.

I

had noticed that the bees were restricted to the meadow where there was none of the moss that had recently been brought to the surface. I spring-raked and took away the bee inhibitor.