The march of hairy feet

The first time I saw these bees I didn't know what they were.  I saw smaller brown bees and larger black bees in The Alnwick Garden a few years ago and it was only when I got home to look them up I found they were the male and female of the same species, Anthophora plumipes, the hairy-footed flower bee.  At the time the Alnwick population was a complete outlier, 100km or so from the next nearest confirmed population.  In recent years they have been spreading south in Northumberland and recently they were reported in Morpeth, only 15km north of here as the bee flies, so yesterday I went to have a look.  I soon found up to a dozen males flying around the cowslips and primula hybrids in the Turner Garden,  They were patrolling and chasing each other, always on the lookout for a female and occasionally sipping nectar to refuel.  It makes photographing them a challenge but eventually a couple paused for breath to show how the get their name.

Most of the time they were zooming around between the flowers but there was a brief opportunity when they were refuelling.  Note the long proboscis which allows them to use long tubular flowers

When a female arrived it caused great excitement and they hovered close by, hoping to strike lucky, even though she had no interest in them as she was presumably already mated and was busy collecting nectar and pollen.

This male must be a bit short-sighted as he was propositioning a queen red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius).

The females are black with an orange pollen brush on each back leg.

This one has already loaded up with yellow primula pollen.

The female also has a long proboscis to reach the nectar.  It it often cleaned while flying between flowers.

The tongue is even longer and is pushed out through the tube-like proboscis.

There were plenty of other bees about while I was watching, including a garden bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) the longest-tongued of our bumblebees.

You can see how short the red-tailed bumblebee's tongue is in comparison but she can obviously still reach the nectar.

And this tiny bee which is a male tawny mining bee (Andrena fulva).

And just before I left a female tawny mining bee landed right in front of me, wanting also to have her photo taken.

On the way back to the car, several hundred metres away I saw this.

And near the car park, this.

So hairy-footed flower bees seem quite well established in the town and must have been there for some time.  It is only six years or so since they were first recorded in Northumberland and in that time they have moved 30km south from Alnwick to Morpeth to be only 15km away from here.  If they continue to spread I hope to see them here within a few years.  I have already drilled holes in the walls so they will have somewhere to live and there are plenty of pulmonaria flowers, grape hyacinths and cowslips for them in my garden.