It was actually the 26 February that I saw my first male Osmia cornuta.
It was not until 19 March that I saw the first female. She reminds me a bit of Winnie the Poo trying to get into Rabbit’s hole. She is much more substantially built than her mate and he has had to wait a long time for her to hatch out, as usual.
She gets straight onto the task of laying eggs and providing each one with enough stores of pollen to grow into a new bee. She goes in head first with her load of pollen neatly attached to her hairy abdomen and then comes out after she has pressed the pollen in place with her head, still with the pollen grains adhering to her.
I have not seen as many of these bees as in previous years.
Kourosh discovered a suspect tiny hill of soil just outside our front door and marked it for me with some twigs. As I passed by this morning, I noticed the soil quiver – just as I had seen molehills move on occasion.
The hole is completely covered in the evening so I quickly rushed in for my camera and sat to wait. I was rewarded by the appearance of this little head. After a few tentative ups and downs, she eventually flew out.
I think she might be an Andrena fulva. I usually see her later on the raspberries so I would be interested in what she favours at the moment. I will keep my eyes open for her now.
We have discovered another bulb worth planting in pots to attract the bees. Puschkinia are like mini Hyacinth but their flowers are more open for the bees. In addition they are gently perfumed. I find them a little small and pallid but if you like to attract pollinators to your patio you might like to try them.
All the bees have a huge amount of pollen to choose from at this time. The Willow is just about finished but the woods are full of white Sloe blossom. Gardens are full of flowering fruit trees and our honeybees are working hard bringing in the pollen.
Check out this video (16 secs.) to see the different colours of pollen they are bringing in https://youtu.be/nX3C_QTvvYM. And now HERE is the correctly posted video. Thank you Ann and Julian :).
Bees in a French Garden 
Your video is unavailable – I’m in France.
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Have you tried just clicking on the link. I have posted it on YouTube. Amelia
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Thank you for alerting me. I’ve got it posted correctly now :). I had it on private (???).
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Hello Amelia,
Some lovely photos and observations as always – your solitary bees are certainly ahead of ours. I loved the imagery of the larger female struggling into the hole like Winnie the Pooh! Like Ann di M, I couldn’t get the video to load – I wonder if it’s been set as a “private to view” only, rather than “public”, which is the message I’m getting when trying to access it?
Best wishes
Julian
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I think you have got the answer! I can see the video fine, so my fingers must have wandered and changed the setting by mistake. Amelia
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Very interesting. A few years ago I was watching Osmia bicornis females coming back to bee tubes with pollen loads. They went in head first and quite quickly backed out again turned round and and reversed back in. I have no idea why they did this but I wondered if O.cornuta did something similar??
Andrena fulva females are one of the most beautiful of solitary bees, in my opinion!
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I suppose she is most vulnerable at the opening and wants to keep her nest hidden so she goes for the fastest entrance and the safest exit – head first. O.cornuta does exactly this and unloads and tamps the pollen in place in between times – busy lady. Amelia
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When the female arrives at her nest from a collecting trip she walks in headlong and deposits the nectar stored in her crop. Then she walks backwards because she can’t turn round inside the tunnel. Then turns around outside the nest entrance and goes in again – now abdomen first – to unload the pollen from the scopa (hair brush on the ventral side of the adomen). A species profile (besides many others) with many images can be found here:. https://www.wildbienen.info/steckbriefe/osmia_cornuta.php
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Thank you so much for that and also for directing me to your brilliant web page. Luckily Google translates it to English for me. I shall enjoy going through the species profiles. The photographs are very helpful. Amelia
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I agree that was very helpful, also the link to the bee web pages. Thanks so much to Paul Westrich.
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