Sunday 20th April
Today I was working down by the river (Derwent), and on the path edge something caught my eye. A small, volcano-like mound of soil spool at the foot of an ancient, sessile oak. I carefully put my phone on the path and managed to film a charming video of a preoccupied female tawny mining bee in all her gingery glory. This wonderful solitary bee forms a burrow of eggs and a food source of nectar from nearby flowering fruit trees. She will seal each egg complete with a store of nectar in a single cell which will then hatch, develop, hibernate before it emerges as an adult the following spring.