For the last 2 or 3 years there have been large black bees with a yellow stripe encircling near their head and a similar yellow stripe near the posterior of their abdomen. They are fuzzy like a bumblebee, but smaller, 2/3 the size. They look predominately black not yellow. I only ever notice 2 or 3 at a time, always flying and never settled. They like to hang around the pieris which are flowering now, and seem to buzz me when I pass between the two pieris on the sidewalk, though I have never felt attacked. They also are flying around the forget-me-nots, though I have not seen them land on any plant. Yesterday I was transplanting some plants and had a hole in the ground, a bee came along and flew into the hole, and investigated if for a while before flying away. Anyone know this bee?
Have a look through the photos at E-Fauna BC. Here is the search result for the bumblebee's genus, Bombus.
