Bees and Flowers

Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris, in the pond in Spring Park, 24 April 2013.

I was in Spring Park recently and I was pleased to see a good display of Marsh Marigolds in the pond.  It's an artificial pond, lined with rubberised plastic to retain water, fed by one of the springs from the hillside it sits next to.

You can just about see, if you enlarge the photo, a dot on one of the flowers a little right of centre.

Bee on a Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris, in the pond in Spring Park, 24 April 2013.

It's a bee.  A solitary bee, not a hive-dwelling honey-bee. 

Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes, on a Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris. Spring Park, 24 April 2013.

In fact it's a female mining bee, so-called because they dig holes in tightly packed earth in which to lay their eggs.  I have shown these bees before, here: Andrena flavipes in Jubilee Country Park and here: Andrena flavipes on Keston Common. The second link shows one of the holes.

This one is a female.  There were males around as well:

Yellow-legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes, on a Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris. Spring Park, 24 April 2013.

This one was feeding on a dandelion near the pond.  Their home is a footpath that runs along the base of the wood.  I would have liked to get a photo of one of the bees entering or leaving a hole, but they are extremely wary when they are on the footpath, which is a reasonable response given the number of people and dogs who go along it quite unaware of their presence.  (The people are unaware; I can't vouch for the dogs, but they ignore them.)

Spring flowers and spring insects!  At last.