Radipole RSPB Reserve, Weymouth
Tuesday June 30th 2015
As I was locking the gate to the hide this evening I noticed a bee trying to chew through the post.
A closer view suggested that this was a leaf-cutter bee, but what was it doing?
Leaf-cutter bees normally make a solitary nest by finding a hole and stuffing it full of bits that they've cut out of leaves.
But this one seemed to be trying to make it's own hole!
It wasn't until I looked at the videos back on my computer that I realised that it was actually filling the hole - with what looked like a paste made out of chewed leaves.
I didn't know they did this.
More later.
UPDATE!
It's now four days later and, as suspected, the hole is now stuffed full of little circles of leaf.
Inside will presumably be a little bee larva feeding on the leaf circles.
Quite what the lining of leaf-paste was for I don't know.
