I’ve been chasing a Teddy Bear Bee around the garden for weeks.  It is probably the most manic bee so far, in that it seems to spend all its time hovering and darting around the rock wall near my garage and no time collecting pollen.  Of course this can’t be true, but I’ve yet to catch it on a flower.  The result of my efforts is a collection of fuzzy bee photos … can you spot the bee in this photo?

In desperation I resorted to chasing after it with a big white plastic jar – luckily out of sight of my neighbours who would surely have thought I had lost my remaining marbles !!

So here it is, my one and only and still not quite in focus, photo of a Teddy Bear Bee. You can see the bald spot on the top of its thorax indicating that it is an “older” bee.  It’s a solitary native bee which nests in a burrow, or sometimes under houses, which could explain why I see it hanging around the garage rather than the garden.

Footnote for Manuel who thinks that strange and wonderful creatures lurk outside my door just waiting to be discovered …  I have been trying to confirm a sighting of a  Domino Cuckoo Bee for over two months.  Watch this space!