It was still very windy after the rain cleared yesterday so I decided to head to some local but out-of-the-way, sheltered places to spend some time staring at leaves, as you do – well, as I do anyway. I didn’t find any leafminers, which is what I was hoping for (it’s still a little cold for many of them), but I did find a nice assortment of other mini-beasties that I will share over a couple of posts. First up, two mining bees, the identities of which have been verified by an acquaintance of mine who’s a local expert.

This first is the Chocolate mining bee, Andrena scotica. I spotted it sitting on a leaf that was blowing about a little in the wind. I thought it might fly away when I took hold of the leaf tip to stabilise it so I could get some photos. Instead, it crawled along the leaf and on to my hand. I think perhaps my relative warmth attracted it to me as it continued to sit there while I walked further along the path and found a more sheltered spot with a few flowers to move it to. A special moment!

And the beautiful creature above is a Grey-patched mining bee (Andrena nitida), a rather drab name for such a lovely foxy coloured bee. Both of these mining bees can be difficult to identify so I was lucky to have expert help. I’ve linked both bees to the specific photo albums posted by Steven Falk on Flickr, where there are stunning images that might help with identification and further information.