My eye was caught by something down to my right, and I noticed an insect hovering before a large planter. Suddenly, it darted forward and disappeared. I continued to watch and realised that there was a pea-sized hole near the base, and beneath the hole was a little pyramid of fine dirt.
Clearly, whatever it was had found this hole and had been burrowing inside. I waited a while, and sure enough, a couple of minutes later it popped its head out again, had a furtive look around, then flew off. A few minutes later it was joined by a friend, and suddenly two insects were queuing up to enter what must have been a nest within the belly of the planter.
To be certain of their identity, I tried to grab a few photos with my phone, most of which were rubbish (you try photographing tiny flying insects with a phone), but a few were just about publishable, and you can judge my abilities for yourself by those with this article. They seemed like a busy bunch, coming and going every few minutes, and it was fun trying to spot when they were about to leave the nest. You’d just see the tip of their shiny little head pop out for a second, retreat, pop out again, scan the surroundings and either retreat again or fly off, presumably on high alert for predators, me being a rather large one hovering over them with a phone camera.
They seemed to get used to me though, and after a while, accepted my presence so that I managed to grab a few shots. Once I returned home, my trusty wildlife book confirme.