Spring time bees get out too soon due to warmer weather ... a global warming effect ?
Today we did another check in our local nature reserve in Bellem. This location is a very nice hot spot for mining bees in the springtime , but with warmer weather these springtime bees sometimes also emerges too soon and one can find them around on the few flowers which are still flowering.
Andrena vaga is mostly found on Achillea millefolium and Taraxacum officinale. Apart from these plants I also still noticed flowers of Centaurea jacea, Tanacetum vulgare, Jacobaea vulgaris and Trifolium repens. Just a few plants each on a large grass field.
It was cold and windy , but still we found Andrena vaga ( 2 males and 1 female) , Eristalis peritinax and Episyrphus balteatus. Last year the latest date I did notice Andrena vaga around was 5 november (I check this location now for over 8 years). Now we are almost a week further in the year ... so a new record for our small nature reserve. I only noticed few animals who collected pollen during these whole bizarre "autumn for springbees" time : Andrena scotica and Andrena haemorrhoa females were found with yellow pollen at their hindlegs.
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Spectacular journal entry. It tells me just how important it is to document as much as possible to compare it with what's there tomorrow/next year.
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