Actually, keen-eyed bee-fly fanciers have been spotting these fuzzy little beasties for a week or so now, and by 14 March, 14 records – all in England – had been entered in to the recording system. And yesterday, in warm sunshine and alongside a sheltered footpath with plenty of flowering Lesser celandine, I finally saw my first bee-fly of the year. This is a Dark-edged bee-fly (Bombylius major); although there are other species in Britain, this is the only species local to me.

For everything you might ever want to know about bee-flies, there’s a fantastic presentation The A to Z of Bee-flies on the FSC Biodiversity channel on YouTube.