Ivy mining bee

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by Nick Smith

Now that is interesting, on September 22nd or 23rd Peggy and I saw a bank with a large of amount of activity from what appeared to be wasps, we had a closer look and thought they must be some kind of bee. There was a large amount of them, maybe even as many as 100 all buzzing about a bank of earth below an Ivy bush. There was a lot of activity around some holes in the bank, some seemed to be fighting with one another rolling about on the bank. Some congregated in number around holes. We weren't sure what they were. I have some images of them but the res is too large to upload, I was going to post some images a few days ago but got fed up as my images are too large in res and I couldn't figure out how to reduce the size to below 1600. Anyway, they seem to have made a hit here with all you 'experts'. I am sure mine are Ivy mining bees, later I will make more of an effort to reduce the size to post some images. Are the locations relevant? I can provide more info if needed. I have never seen anything like them before. If I had had more time I would have observed them longer..

Hi Nick

Seems like you too have found these bees. They usually will excavate south facing earth. The 'fighting' you describe is probably mating. The males are on the look-out for females and will cluster about her giving the impression of fighting.
The bees themselves are very distinctive - see the images in the post. The nest sites too are a good tell-tale.
You should be able to reduce the image size for posting on here. What editing software are you using?

[Nick Smith]

Originally Posted by PeterD

Hi Nick

Seems like you too have found these bees. They usually will excavate south facing earth. The 'fighting' you describe is probably mating. The males are on the look-out for females and will cluster about her giving the impression of fighting.
The bees themselves are very distinctive - see the images in the post. The nest sites too are a good tell-tale.
You should be able to reduce the image size for posting on here. What editing software are you using?

I use Photoshop Elements 8.0, there is a feature to resize the images but when I tried the res was still 3888 x 2*** (whatever it is) going home soon will have a look. I have been out of the loop with photograph editing for about a year due to personal life, and my computer that i normally use has been inoperative for a long time. I haven't got around to fixing it yet. The images are reasonably good though, Canon 40D with Canon 180mm Macro lens.

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by Nick Smith

I use Photoshop Elements 8.0, there is a feature to resize the images but when I tried the res was still 3888 x 2*** (whatever it is) going home soon will have a look. I have been out of the loop with photograph editing for about a year due to personal life, and my computer that i normally use has been inoperative for a long time. I haven't got around to fixing it yet. The images are reasonably good though, Canon 40D with Canon 180mm Macro lens.

Good luck Nick. I look forward to seeing your images on here.

[Nick Smith]

Originally Posted by PeterD

Good luck Nick. I look forward to seeing your images on here.

Thanks, PeterD


now, is this the same bee?



Cheers, Nick.

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by Nick Smith

Thanks, PeterD


now, is this the same bee?



Cheers, Nick.

Yes Nick, I can confirm these are Ivy Mining Bees. Good image too.

Stuart (eucera) will be interested in getting location details etc. from you.

[Nick Smith]

Originally Posted by PeterD

Yes Nick, I can confirm these are Ivy Mining Bees. Good image too.

Stuart (eucera) will be interested in getting location details etc. from you.

Thanks PeterD, details passed on to eucera, I have some more photo's that, like this one, have not had any post processing done. At the time I was using a monopod and wish I had made the effort to get the tripod. The good news is the site is very open and has a very good vantage point to get some really good photo's. I,unfortunately, live too far away as this was taken on a short hol. The strangest thing that we found out is the day before we were at Worth Matravers which is the first recorded location (according to BWARS information sheet) in Dorset but we weren't looking for bees at that time.

(edit) This was quite a distance away near Hastings We have a bit of a habit of stumbling across bees as in March we were in Cornwall and found Ashy bees actually nesting on the coast path.

Cheers

Nick.