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.

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!