Hopefully this will be the first of many I take this season. Hopefully^2^ I'll even take the time to break out my "real camera" at some point and go 🐝 hunting

I'm in northern Germany and haven't seen a single one, a few bumblebees and had a large wasp nest near my door last year but they seem to have died over the winter, planted more flowers for them this year but still no sign of them, for the bees i meant.

Great photo! App says it’s a European wool carder bee. I’m not familiar with these little cuties!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthidium_manicatum

They get the name "carder" from their behaviour of scraping hair from leaves[4] such as lamb's ears (Stachys byzantina). They carry this hair bundled beneath their bodies to be used as a nest lining.[5] Like other members of the tribe Anthidiini, these bees do not cut leaves or petals as is typical for megachilids.

That's sad to hear :( we live in Northern US - not all the way north, but reasonably close. We had more bees than usual earlier this season, but it's not really bee season yet. Our yard has a lot of clover and pollenator friendly plants. In a few more weeks we'll have a ton of bees around.

Very cool! The highly glossy abdomen threw me off for a second until I saw the fuzz.

I hope that will happen here, i actually saw one today finally and it really liked the wild flowers i planted, hopefully it invites it's friends.