Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Garden Wildlife Watch: Bee spotting on the clematis
I'm very happy that the weather has turned warmer and the bees and butterflies are busy in the garden. This week I've spent a lot of time staring fixedly at my flowering clematis, phone camera poised to snap a picture of a beautiful black bee - the female hairy footed flower bee.
Alas, as the numerous pictures of empty clematis flowers on my camera roll will attest, they've all proved too quick or are too high up for me to capture.
So I'll have to cheat a little here and use a photo I took at Railway Fields three years ago (after many, many failed shots) of the female going after one of their favourite food sources, comfrey.
The male is ginger and its him that has the hairy feet ( no photo - even harder to capture! - so this is from Wikipedia)
They are one of the first solitary bees to emerge, sometimes as early as February, and will fly until June. They are incredibly fast flyers, dashing from flower to flower but if you are lucky they will hover for a moment or two and you can good a look at them. They like to build nests in walls and are common in gardens and parks or even by the side of roads if their favourite foods such as comfrey, or pulmonaria are growing there. I've spotted them on the dog violets in my garden too.
See if you can spot the females first as their gothic black furry coats make it easy to distinguish them. After that you'll probably spot the gingery males too.
Find out more here
Tags for Forum Posts: garden wildlife watch, hairy footed flower bees, nature notes
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by EMC2 on
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Just the other day, for the first time ever, I saw a female Tawny Mining bee on my patio.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thank you both. My general bee knowledge seems to pretty much zip. The mining bee may get if for cutes, but the hairy footed flower bee wins for a name that conjures up a fantastical creature.
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Permalink Reply by The Black Lark on
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And here's a female gold-fringed mason bee
a female red mason bee
a resin bee
and 2 yellow faced bees (you can just see 1 emerging from the hole - with it's yellow face markings)
a parasitic wasp
and a queen common wasp. All emerged from drilled chestnut logs, 7m above the ground (2nd fl flat) on Grand Parade, this time last year. All just beginning again this year...
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