At further Roughdown I was so pleased to see the little chalk 'volcanos' of the mining bees. But, if that wasn't enough, I went to the Brickworks and every open soil area where the dells are was alive with an array of mining bees and wasps. Goodness only knows how anyone identifies them but the best bit was when I walked through what is usually a deeply muddied path to what I can only describe as what is the equivalent of a bit of unimproved chalk grassland near the woods. I looked beneath my feet and what used to be thick yellow mud was like a mini Alps of mining bee mounds. Hundreds of them! I felt so guilty because I trod on a few before I realised but, of course, the egg has been laid already - well beneath the surface with a supply of pollen to help the new larva to survive.
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| A female Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva), photographed on the road outside the Brickworks, 11/4/2015 |
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