Nature notes: Bees

I am slightly proud of the fact that our garden has a lot of different varieties of bees in it.  At one point I guessed that there are at least 12-15 types, but now I'm not so sure.  Anyway, at the risk of this blog becoming like White's Natural History of Selbourne (which could be a good thing), I will attempt to outline the types of bees - although being a non-specialist this might be a bit ho-hum.   I think we are blessed with bees because we have a lot of winter flowering plants so on sunnny days in January and February we have bees hovering around the lonicera purpusa and the clematis balearica.  And this camellia, though I've never seen bees around it, perhaps because it's in a rather cold dark part of the garden.

Anyway, list of bees to follow:

1. Regular honey bee?
2. Honey bee shaped bee but with much lighter fur on the back
3. Honey bee shaped bee but rather dark
4. Small dark round bumble bee (very loud buzz)
5. "Regular" bumble bee
6.  Enormous bumble bee - very ponderous in flight
7.  The special red bees that live in holes in the ground and come out only in April-May
8.  A honey-bee shaped bee with red fur on the back
9.  A honey-bee shaped bee with stripes
10. A long dark bee with loud buzz which seems to be a sort of bumble bee
11. A light, fragile looking bee - about the size of a honey bee but might lighter in colour and physique
12. A long bodied bumble bee with rusty red-brown fur on its back (different from 8 - larger, darker)
13.  Er, those are all I can remember at present, but I know there are more...

It is lovely and sunny - and I have been gardening - also saw my first Red Admiral butterfly (saw a tortoiseshell and a peacock a couple of weeks ago).