Today we saw lots of different bees

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Each nice day this year, I have been struck by how few bees there seem to be either in the garden or at any of the planted sites at rosybee. Today was different; there was a gentle buzz even when the sun was behind light clouds.  This was particularly true of the contoneasters in our garden which was buzzing so noisily that I spent at least an hour trying to add to our stock collection of bumblebees. The following is the full list of bees I saw today.

Common bees found in sun:

  • Early bumblebee
  • White tailed bumblebee
  • Red-tailed bumblebee
  • Buff-tailed bumblebee
  • Common carder
  • Tawny mining bee
  • Cuckoo bumblebee

Foraging in light shade

  • Moss carder
  • Garden bumblebee

and some more unusual ones:

  • Tree bumblebee (lots of those so we must have a local nest)
  • Coastal leafcutter (not sure what that was doing in Oxfordshire)
  • and I think, a hairy footed flower bee - see picture and please tell me if you know better
Pollinating insectsrosiComment