This quite large bee is possibly a red tailed cuckoo bumblebee queen. She spent several minutes digging into spots around here, then flew away. She had dark wings, which suggests that she is a cuckoo.
It is unclear what this smaller ‘bee’ could be. It flitted between the blossoms quite rapidly. Glad to see that the ragwort is getting visitors as hoped. The image seems to suggest that it has two wings, so if that is correct then it is not a bee, apparently. There were no examples that looked like this in the search results, more puzzled than before I began looking.
Where the bee sucks, there suck I:
In a cowslip’s bell I lie; There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat’s back I do fly
After summer merrily. Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.”
Shakespeare “The Tempest” Ariel, Act Five Scene One
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