hairy-footed flower bees

 

27-03-26 A pleasant enough constitutional with Mary to the Botanics and one I wouldn't have bothered to archive had the first female flower bee I've seen this year not appeared. The males have been out for a couple of weeks. They are ginger with creamy white faces, hairy front legs/feet and quite cute. The females underline the sexual dimorphism looking almost entirely different, having an all black body and yellow hind leg stripes.

female hary-footed flower bee

male hairy-footed flower bee

This female had the habit of wiping her glossa clean of pollen between dabbing it into the pulmonaria flowers. It can be seen more clearly in the video below. The glossa is that pointy part below their face they keep folded back under their bodies until they bring it forward to use like a straw or dabber to help consume pollen/nectar.

Male at rest showing hairy legs and feet.
I didn't get any photos of females at rest. And I suspect
their legs and feet aren't quite as hairy as the males.

HFFBs at flowers
Male first, then darker female for rest of video

I was pleased with this little video. The first 14 seconds are of the male and that section was made a week ago or more. I was able to add the longer clip of the female after this rather helpful specimen stayed feeding around the same group of pulmonaria flowers making filming much easier. They are busy little bees and it is not easy to follow them around as they speed between flowers. The 4.8 x slo-mo makes it all look very relaxed and unhurried but in real life it is not and a ton of footage and stills went straight into the recycle bin; either out-of-focus or with the bees going out of frame.

mr scruffy

While near the pulmonaria we looked for the handfeeding great tits. However they must have been off on their travels as they didn't show up. The slightly scruffy robin with the squint beak was there and also refused to sit on hands although a fellow robin briefly took some seeds off my hand.

photo Mary
although in shorts I reverted to long trousers next day or 2 as the cold returned

Campbell's magnolia

lots of nice things flowering
this one occasionally attracts admirals (or did last year)

I put the wider angle 12~60mm lens on for recording (absent) great tits
and what a good job it did of capturing the Reg Butler, pond and Inverleith House

There were a pair of mallards going heads-down and rears-up near the edge of the pond. They were completely oblivious of Mary and I who were right beside them. I decided to remind the male that a degree of caution might be an idea and not to be too casual. While his head was shovelling for luckies on the bottom I gently stroked his rear. He instantly engaged his outboard motor and shot off at a great rate causing great amusement. However he didn't hold a grudge and came straight back to hoover up the compensation as apology I sprinkled on the pond.

robin and (wrong) great tit refusing to budge

brief sighting of (the usual) male kingfisher at Powderhall
on the way home

while a squirrel did a high wire act, way above the river