Early summer flowers and bees

Life and work seemed to have ganged up on me lately, so I haven't had a chance to post, but I have still been taking photos:

A host of yellow flag irises on a pond

The ox-eye daisies have been very good for all sorts of insects.  Here is a shot of a mining bee, possibly one of the Andrena genus, but there are lots of similar species and I'm no expert.  Some are relatively common, but they are quite small and often get overlooked.  The bees are solitary, with the females making a nest underground and raising a few young  They dig a burrow in bare,dry soil - my dad once had one set up home in a pot of cacti in his greenhouse.

Here is a bumblebee coming into land on a Heuchera flower in my garden and below the same species on an Astrantia. I think it is the early bumblebee Bombus pratorum, which have short lived colonies, lasting only 3 months or so, before the old queen dies and the new queen goes off to found a second colony.

                                                                              

Bumblebees are back!

I am glad to say that spring is definitely here!  The absence of the biting winds from last week and some unbroken sunshine have made this week feel positively balmy.  According to the Met Office our local weather station at Charlwood recorded a temperature of 14C this afternoon and the daisy above was certainly responding!

This warm weather has drawn out queen bumblebees that have survived the winter, hibernating in underground burrows.  Warm calm days like today are perfect for them to feed and to search out nest sites.  The difficulty is finding suitable nectar sources this early in the year.  At Tilgate Park the bees were clustered around the heather and a Pieris (probably) japonica.  Pieris is a member of the heather family, and the relationship can be seen in the flower shape.

There were probably half a dozen bees, all large females buzzing around this Pieris, which would clearly be a useful shrub to have in a wildlife garden for it's early nectar.  Several rested on the ground for a few minutes before resuming their flight.

I think all the bees I saw were female buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), one of the most common species.  They have the two yellow/gold stripes, one on the thorax (chest), and one on the abdomen.  The tail was a dirty white, with a distinct band of buff hairs between the black and white hairs.

Here is a bee is on the heather Erica carnea, the winter flowering heather, another good garden plant, and a heather that can cope with more alkaline conditions than other ericas, and thus don't need ericaceous compost made from peat dredged from a wildlife-rich bog.

Let me know of any bumblbee sightings - photos if possible.

Other spring flowering plants good for bumblebees include: rosemary, pulmonaria (the blue ones are best), bugle, cowslips, broom, dead-nettles,flowering currant and the related black and red currants, apple and gooseberry,

If you want to know more about bumblebees, take a look at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website:  http://www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk/index.htm