Happy Snappy Ecologist: Ivy Bees
My neighbour has a colony of ivy bees Colletes hederae living in a shallow earth bank along her drive. It was a thoroughly absorbing delight to sit amongst them for an hour or so snapping away. I love bees - their constant busyness has such a friendly energy to it and I had no concerns about being stung. I just sat quietly and enjoyed them buzzing around me. I got some nice photos too and have just had fun playing with Windows Live Moviemaker to put you together a little macro video!
These bees are a particular treat as they are active later in the year - appearing just as I was beginning to lament the end of the bumble bee season. They fly from September - November to coincide with the flowering of ivy Hedera helix. They are a communal, mining species as you can see in the photos and video. This colony is not massive but there are still hundreds of bees.
![P1040776.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVeXexYM9YQ9XXgVeDz7WAVze5vtJcH8dwuUUHKnRU3zQ/P1040776.jpg)
![Snapshot 2 (14-10-2017 23-04).png](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmZuFSY75vJ49HDDnAhXNWSG6mbd3jZgfEWQpHx83Kxe3B/Snapshot%202%20(14-10-2017%2023-04).png)
![P1040741.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmegwCBTJdwC2utS8eLphJYbAcYLG5kNtA2Kph3V9Ff7pp/P1040741.jpg)
![P1040713.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmXX5CX4Dcnvd9drTheqQDJJh5TxZe8i2Mrbtaiwft7jfD/P1040713.jpg)
Aren't they just the prettiest little bees? They're actually quite new to the UK, first being recorded in 2001. They have such clearly defined stripes that they can be mistaken for wasps at a quick glance but look again and you can see that they have that bee fluffiness and aren't as slender as wasps. The following video should give you a fuller impression of them. I love the way they all pile over each other at times and the way they sometimes stop to do a whole body preen. At around 29 secs there is a very cute little bee giving his antennae a thorough clean (it went on to clean ever part of its body but the video was getting a bit long!).
As an amusing end note I must share that I have made two lovely turf walls in my garden especially for mining bees. They are completely unoccupied, whilst my neighbour is rather worried about the erosion of her bank and said,'Have you seen your bees? Their holes are popping up everywhere!' I loved that they have become 'my bees' because I so clearly delight in them! I haven't told her yet that they're likely to return next year......
Happy Snappy Ecologist: Rambling through nature makes me very Happy and I can't resist getting Snappy with my hand-held Panasonic Lumix FZ45 with clip on Raynox 150 macro lens. This helps me share my love of Ecology with others and reminds me to identify and find out more about different species when I get home. Enjoy!
Never heard of this type of bee before. Excellent photos and video documentation. Tnx!
Thank you. It was a first for me this year too and a new favourite!
As a follower of @followforupvotes this post has been randomly selected and upvoted! Enjoy your upvote and have a great day!
Wonderful looking bees. You got some great shots!
Thank you :)
Some fantastic pictures here @monkeygentle. How I wish I had a camera that good. I am also a nature lover who blogs on here almost exclusively about the natural world, especially about my scuba diving experiences under the nomenclature - Scuba Scribe. I have included links to my first 3 posts as scuba scribe (I also post some poetry) but these are all paid out so I'm not fishing (excuse the pun) for upvotes, just thought they may interest you. Keep up the good work :)
https://steemit.com/travel/@raj808/scuba-scribe-diving-the-red-sea-1
https://steemit.com/travel/@raj808/scuba-scribe-diving-the-red-sea-dealing-with-narcosis-2
https://steemit.com/blog/@raj808/scuba-scribe-diving-the-red-sea-chasing-the-mermaid-3
Thanks for telling me - nice diving blog :) My daughter & I plan to get our PADI diving certifcate one day. One of the things on the saving up list! Have followed you so look forward to seeing more.
My Scuba Scribe posts were written to try and give an idea to non-divers of what it is like. Glad to hear it's on the to-do list for you and your daughter one day. Thanks for the feedback and the follow :)
Congratulations @monkeygentle! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP
This post received a 4.15% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @monkeygentle! To learn more, check out @randowhale 101 - Everything You Need to Know!
Great pictures! The look of these bees is pretty fascinating, never seen bees like this.
They're certainly very time absorbing to watch! Glad I could share them with you.