This is the Spring Beauty, Claytonia virginica. It’s a lovely little spring ephemeral that sprouts, flowers, and dies all in the two weeks before the trees leaf out in spring.
This is Andrena erigeniae, a mining bee that specializes on the Spring Beauty. There’s a project to study these bees (link here).
I came across a nesting aggregation of these bees while hiking in the Catskills last week. I recognized them immediately because I remembered reading an email about the project I linked to above a few years ago.
They are tiny little bees and very challenging to photograph! Luckily, my hiking buddy had a zen like patience while I chased little bees around with my camera.
A nest entrance
A female with a full pollen load.
So cute!
Yay! I got a photo of the bee on the flower!
Pretty sure this is a male
Contrasty
Great shots of the little fellow!
Thank you!
Oh! a brief and tiny lovely. I adore the spring ephemerals.
Me too!!
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You got such good photos! I especially like the loaded pollen baskets.
Aw, thank you! It was hard; they don’t like to sit still.
Patience pays off! I never knew about these early pollinators. Cool!
They are so cool! I get pretty excited haha.