Mining Bees at Preston Montford

On April 23rd 2013 a bare patch of earth attracted plenty of interest from some bees in the warm spring sunshine.
The earth was about to be tidied up when the bees were observed flying at an altitude of 3-10 cm over the dry soil. On closer inspection these were identified by Pete Boardman the FSC Invertebrate Challenge  and Bio-Fellowship Project Officer as solitary bees from the genus Andrena.

The site looked ready for more gravel but on closer inspection........

it was covered with small holes with yellow stuff in...

and small bees flying around- Andrena haemorrhoa - Lesser Mining Bees

They are solitary in that each nest is the work of a single female and, although they may live quite close together in groupings called agglomerations, they do not exhibit any social behaviour with other bees.  90% of all British Bee species are of the solitary sort.