On closer look, I noticed them entering the ground. I found a bumblebee nest! I'm sure there's more than one in our yard since we have lots of bumblebees and lots of great places for them to nest--in other words, some bare ground, so scarce in suburbs with mostly lawn and asphalt.
What was interesting was that there were two entrances, about 6 inches apart.
The bumblebee in the photo is carrying some of his pollen/nectar mix on his legs. It will be used to feed the young bees as the colony gets larger and larger.
There's actually quite a high failure rate, and if they fail, I guess that means that the colony ends up producing no queens for next year. I don't know whether the queen of a failed colony can start a new nest midway through the summer.
I'm going to refrain from weeding in this area and hope to see some beautiful queens produced by fall!
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