Hoverflies on a sun-baked bank (1 Viewer)

[Wickham]

I have a large bank at the back of my cottage that is nearly vertical; there is no topsoil on it, it's rock-hard subsoil with small stones in it and a few weeds.

It faces south and for the last week or so in the lovely sun it has had hundreds of hoverflies moving over the surface about half an inch above. Some crawl and try to get into small holes but have no chance of making the holes bigger because the soil is so hard.

Are they mating or looking for nest holes?

 

[aeshna5]

From your description these are not hoverflies, but mining bees. Though classed as solitary, some species are gregarious, but have their own holes, so are not social in the sense of bumble bees. Near me I observed similar to you +these were the bee, Andrena flavipes.

 

[Imaginos]

Sounds like bees to me too. Some species do look & act similar to hoverflies.

 

[Wickham]

Yes, probably mining bees; they are almost the same size and colour as hoverflies.

It's amazing how they react to the sun; if a cloud covers the sun the bees disappear within fifteen seconds; none to be seen at all. When the sun comes out again within fifteen seconds there are hundreds hovering about.

I had one last year that kept flying into my greenhouse keyhole every five minutes so I had to block it up.