Meet the fox-red spring bee that digs tiny burrows in sunny lawns and borders. Look for a little volcano of soil around each entrance — that’s the Tawny Mining Bee’s doorway!

🐝 What makes it special?

This bee is solitary: no hive, no queen. Each female builds and stocks her own nest underground. Females are a rich, tawny orange on top with a dark underside; males are smaller, golden-brown and often show a pale tuft on the face.

She digs a narrow shaft in light soil and:

• Makes side rooms (“cells”) off the main tunnel,
• Packs each with pollen and nectar, lays one egg,
• Seals it, then starts the next cell.

Many females may nest close together in a patch of turf, but each has her own burrow — it’s a friendly neighbourhood, not a colony.

🐣 Life cycle

• Spring (March–May): Adults emerge, mate, and females begin tunnelling.
• Spring–early summer: Brood cells are stocked with pollen/nectar and sealed.
• Summer: Larvae feed and develop.
• Autumn–winter: They pupate and rest underground, ready for next spring.

👀 When & what to look for

• Season: mainly March to May (often seen into early June).
• Signs: small soil mounds with a neat hole in the centre; busy bees zipping low over short grass.
• Flowers: visits spring blossom and wildflowers — willow/sallow catkins, blackthorn and hawthorn, fruit trees (apple, pear, cherry), daffodils, garlic mustard and more.
• Where: sunny lawns, flowerbeds, banks and field margins; parks and gardens as well as natural grassland.

🌸 Why it matters

As an early spring pollinator, the Tawny Mining Bee helps set fruit on trees and keeps spring flowers thriving. She’s non-aggressive and very unlikely to sting if left alone.

🌍 How you can help

• Let patches of short, sunny turf stay undisturbed in spring.
• Plant early flowers and blossom: willow/sallow, blackthorn, fruit trees, lungwort, primroses, dandelions.
• Avoid pesticides; they harm bees and their food.
• If lots nest in your lawn, enjoy the show — the mounds are temporary and don’t damage the grass.

• Name: Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva)
• Size: females ~10–12 mm; males a little smaller
• Type: solitary, ground-nesting “mining” bee
• Range: widespread in much of Britain and Europe; most often seen in spring

📱 Keep walking the trail to meet more of Bernie’s friends — and help them too.