Technique: The weather has been fluctuating a lot, but when it's warm and sunny I've been taking the cocoons harvested from my Mason Bee house out and letting them hatch. They're not all hatching at once, but when they decide to come out it's fast.
I think that this is a Red Mason Bee O. bicornis (= O. rufa), but I could be wrong. What's throwing me off is how different a solitary bee can look even after a short time. Amazing how fast they "age".
Tech Specs: Canon 70D (F11, 1/250, ISO 100) + a Canon MP-E 65mm macro lens (around 2x) + a diffused MT-24EX (both flash heads on the Canon flash mount) and I had to switch to manual mode (E-TTL metering was getting confused by this scene). These are single, uncropped, frames taken hand held.






Here's the funny part: This is a male Osmia caerulescens, commonly called a Blue Mason bee because of the female's blue abdomen:
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/F8S9hC



I've never seen a female in my yard (LordV feel free to add your shot of the girl to this thread). But now that I know they are here I'll look for them. All of the females that have emerged from my cocoons have been Red Mason bees. This male, a week or two from now, won't look the same. The color of his fur won't be as bright, and he'll be missing a lot of it.