I know I said that the next bee post would be about the two bees we are studying. But I lied. That’s still coming, however.
While walking around a newly discovered field of flowers that we thought seemed ideal for mark-and-recapture, we happened across an old felled tree with some holes in it–holes that looked like ideal natural nesting sites for Osmia. After staring at the holes for a moment, we were delightfully surprised to see that a single bee was in fact using one of the holes for a nest! It went in and out of the nest at an alarming rate, perhaps every 10-15 seconds. At this rate it seems unlikely that she was actively gathering pollen and returning to provision the nest at that time. I managed to get some video of the lovely bee frantically emerging and revisiting her nest. I apologize that the video is not as in-focus as it could have been.
What could she possibly be doing?