If you’re new to bee spotting, now is the month when you can begin. If you’ve been waiting all winter to get back to bee spotting, now’s the month to resume on dry, warm, sunny days.

In March, these are our three most common species of bumblebee:

• The Buff-tailed (Bombus terrestris) is one of our most common and largest bumblebees. The queens – measuring up to 18mm – are hard to miss with their gold coloured stripes on their big black body and a buffish-coloured bottom.
• The Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) queen (14mm) has an intense ginger thorax and a white tail. Unlike other bumblebees, she lives high up in holes in trees and walls, even colonising bird boxes when the chicks have fledged.
• The Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) queen is much smaller (13mm) and prettier with her fluffy yellow collar and orangey bottom. Bu the end of the month her brood may have developed into adult, worker bees and will be out foraging instead of the queen. They are a smaller version of the queen. At just 10mm, they are the smallest bumblebee you will see.

(A rarer bumblebee, but flying at this time of year, is the white-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum). She looks so similar to the Buff-tailed bumblebee in size and stripes, but the best way to tell them apart is that her stripes are more yellow rather than a dirty gold colour.)

The queen bumblebees are either looking for a place to nest (most nest underground in old rodent holes, which is why you may see them flying close to the ground), or they have just found a good location and laid some their eggs, and they are out collecting nectar and pollen to take home to feed their developing colony of workers.

Four solitary bees:

• Hairy-footed flower bees (Anthophora plumipes) are often mistaken for bumblebees because of their round, fluffy appearance, but they live alone (not in colonies). The brown, male hairy-footed flower bees emerge a few weeks before the females. They visit pulmonaria and other flowers with bell-shaped flowers sucking up the nectar with their long, straw-like tongues (proboscis) to build up their energy for mating when the females appear.
• Red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) – the males can emerge toward the end of the month if it’s warm to feed on blossoming fruit trees and shrubs. If you have a bee hotel you may see these cavity nesting bees checking out of the mud-plugged tubes. They are a little smaller (12mm) than a honey bee (14mm), more gingery and have a rounder bottom.
• Gwynne’s mining bee (Andrena bicolor) is a bit harder to spot, being 6-8mm, but look down and you may see them burrowing through soil on south-facing banks. Although solitary, they nest next door to each other underground in burrows in large aggregations, so hundreds could emerge at the same time. But don’t worry, solitary bees don’t sting! The males are small (6-7.5m) and black, while the female (pictured above), which may not be out until next month, have a reddish-brown pile on the top of their thorax and hairy pollen brushes on the back legs.
• Orange-tailed mining bee (Andrena haemorrhoa), also known as the early mining bee, is a slightly bigger solitary bee (7-9.5m). The males are brown with a dull brown fluffy thorax and tiny orange hairs at the tip of their bottom. You may see them emerging from holes in garden lawns, parks, playing fields – anywhere with light soil in a sunny spot. A little pile of spoil around the hole is a sure sign of a nest for most mining bees, and like Andrena bicolour they nest next door to each other, so you may see lots of them together. You may see the males on dandelions, blackthorn, willows and gorse. The females are much more striking with their rusty-red pile of hair on their thorax, but you’ll have to wait until next month to see them.

How to tell a male Andrena bicolor apart from an Andrena haemorrhoa?

With difficulty! Andrena bicolor males are darker (black in colour), smaller (6-7.5m) and less hairy. Andrena haemorrhoa males are brown, a little bigger (up to 9.5m), and bit fluffier on the thorax, and of course the tip of their bottom is orange, hence their common name. They forage on the same blossoming trees, flowering shrubs and spring flowers such as wood anemone, dandelions, lesser celandine, and even daffodils, and bluebells later in spring. And they nest in very similar locations. So, good luck (FYI haemorrhoa is pronounced He/more/rower.)

Why are only the male solitary bees around this month?

The males emerge earlier than the females because they need to build up their strength for mating when they girls appear. They will seek out sources of nectar to give them energy, patches of flowers which could make good mating grounds, and will often buzz around nests waiting for the ladies to check-out.

Honeybees?

We’ve not included honeybees in our Bees to See in March guide because they are managed bees, and we are focusing on identifying and helping wild bees. But you will see honey bee (Apis mellifera) workers (10mm) this month for sure because they leave the hive when temperatures reach around 13c. Shaped like a wasp, they have black and amber stripes. Look up and you will see them high up on fruit trees, pussy willows and hazel and alder collecting nectar and pollen to take home to feed their queen and thousands of hungry larvae that will develop into workers and drones.

The way to tell male mining bees apart from honeybees is:

• size – honeybees are a bit bigger (10mm)
• location – honeybees tend to forage in trees at this time of year, and mining bees will sometimes be nearer to the ground emerging, or looking for a nest, but they will also forage in blossoming trees
• appearance – honeybees are more stripped, honey-coloured and are less hairy than the mining bees.
• It gets easier to tell them apart the more you look.

Many people confuse the bee-fly (Bombylius major) for a bee (which is why we’ve included it). Not surprising, because it’s a great mimic – round and fluffy like a small bumblebee. It’s very visible in the spring, hovering around green alkanet. The easiest way to tell it apart from a bee is it’s long, spindly legs, hovering action, and two wings (bees have four wings) which stick out at a 45c angle.

If you’d like more information on the life cycle of bees and how to help them, click here for bumblebees, here for solitary bees, and here for honey bees.

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