Ivy bees： Britain's newest bee

#NatureDocumentary #Pollinators #Colletidae
As summer fades, one bee is just getting started.

While most pollinators are winding down for the year, the ivy bee (Colletes hederae) is only just emerging — timing its entire life cycle to a single flowering plant: ivy. This film follows that fleeting autumn window, when clifftops and hedgerows erupt in a frenzy of mating, digging, and pollen-gathering before the first frosts arrive.

Miranda gets up close with one of Britain's newest bee species — first recorded in the UK in 2001 and now spreading fast — to reveal a masterclass in specialisation: a species that has built its survival strategy around a single, unglamorous, late-flowering plant that most gardeners rip out on sight.

Expect mating balls, solitary nest excavation, and a reminder that even our most overlooked hedgerows are hiding extraordinary stories.

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