Burrowing bees at the Lagoon

The Lagoon is becoming a home for a lot more than water plants and wildlife. While we were seed sowing on a recent warm, sunny day (remember those?) we observed a mass of small bees doing their tiny best to undermine one of the banks above the water.
The Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae), a relative newcomer to the UK, is so called because it feeds on ivy flowers at this time of year. It could also be described as a mining bee, because the females burrow up to two metres deep to lay their eggs, excavating little piles of loose soil as they do so. They use the tunnels to prepare brood chambers for their young.
More info on this interesting species here.

​Post & pics by Graham K.

​Where to find them
This is the what3words location of the Ivy Bee burrows at the Lagoon:
///return.muddy.type
​Or you can view it on a satellite map through this link:
https://w3w.co/return.muddy.type