Spring has arrived in Indiana and I have been enjoying walks in the open woodlands. On April 17, I noticed several tiny mining bees harvesting pollen from blooming golden ragwort flowers. The bees were only slightly shy and I clearly did not distract them much, if at all. Instead, they concentrated on delivering food to their nests burrowed underground. Unlike honeybees and bumble bees which have pollen baskets, mining bees belong to a different genus (Adrena) and gather pollen on stiff hairs on their back legs. They are a favorite of mine because they rarely sting.