I live in the hill country of Texas, northwest of Austin.

I'm not sure what kind of bees these are, but have had two observations. First of all, I had placed bubble wrap over something out in the yard (two pots I was storing that I didn't want to rub against each other) and it was there throughout the winter. The pots accumulated some water. Anyway I noticed that bubble wrap was deteriorated over the months and that it had attracted bees to it. I don't know what it is in the bubble wrap that they liked but they were all over it.
The other thing I noticed is that when I used seaweed or fish emulsion on my soil this spring the same bees came in swarms and just seemed to relish walking around on the soil. I put a small bowl filled with water out with just a tiny bit of seaweed in it and they swarmed that too. And it seems they are constantly lined up on the lip of my large container fountain drinking that water (which has various water plants in it).
They are the thirstiest bees I've ever seen!

{{gwi:429867}}