Country diary: A sun-warmed day has the bees feeling hot

‘Ashy mining bees forage widely and are considered polylectic, collecting pollen and nectar from a diverse range of spring-flowering plants and trees.’ Photograph: FOE/Sophie Hutchinson

One of the 68 UK-recorded species of mining bee in the genus Andrena, the ashy mining bee (Andrena cineraria) is classified as solitary. Yet on the narrow, balding strip of turf in front of my neighbours’ garage, they appear anything but.

The ground shimmers with movement, as several hundred bees hover low in the spring sunshine. While each female maintains her own burrow – a neat, pencil-eraser-sized hole excavated in the bare, sun-warmed soil – they’ve gathered here in a dense aggregation, turning this modest patch into a bustling settlement.