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Two of the city parks here in Tallahassee have large populations of miner bees, numbering in the many thousands. The bees open their burrows in late February or early March and forage for nectar and pollen with which they stock their nest. Males form chaotic, low level swarms over the open female nests, and pounce females to try to mate with them. I think success is probably low. By the end of March, the bees have closed their burrows again, not to reappear until next year.

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Thanks for this description! When I watched our miner bees I hadn't paid attention to the males trying to mate -- this spring I'll make sure to slow down enough to watch! Ours here in northern Georgia are a bit later than yours -- more like April/May because of the cooler weather. I'd like to see if I can see them crawl out of the ground for the first time in the spring.

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You know what has an amazing diversity of insects and other creatures? A compost pile! I even found snails in ours!

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That makes sense! We don't have a true compost pile, but the pile of leaves, sticks and dead plants we do have usually has a resident black snake living in it over the summer. It must be like a small city in there - places to eat, sleep, visit with friends, go shopping for what you need...

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Ha! This made me laugh!

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