Bees that like to go Surfing

The last few days I've been watching bees surf in my pond.

I know, I know, it sounds odd, and I have no way to prove it since my video camera doesn't seem to be able to focus on a creature that small and that fast.

But here is what we are seeing:

Several bees, which seem to be a small kind of native bumble bee of some kind, fall delicately from the sky.  Their descent is slow and precise;  they remind me of the RAF parachutists landing on the fields of France in World War II movies.  Unlike helicopters they do not make a noisy, wind-filled landing.  Instead, it almost looks like they stop moving their wings above the pond and then carefully, slowly land on top of it.

Then, they spread out their legs on the tops of the teeny, tiny leaves of our duck weed.  Once they've gained full equilibrium it looks as if they are drinking the water.  Just as I lean into get a closer look they *POOF* lift off and go skyward again.

I have not been able to find any information about bees landing on the surface of water in this way, although lots and lots of people have videoed honeybees drinking.  I also found some websites which mention that bees don't seem to favor excessive heat any more than humans.  Most of the references to this dislike, however, mention how hard the honeybees have to work to keep the queen of their hive cool.  Fanning is tiring when the heat gets above 100 degrees, I imagine, and we've just come off a long week of very excessive heat and humidity.

But what about the solitary bees I'm seeing?  They wouldn't need to tend a queen, so maybe this is something they do all the time.

The whole thing of solitary bees drinking seems much less documented. In fact, I haven't found a single reference to it yet.  I'm going to keep searching, and maybe also try to get a better video camera set up out by my pond.  (If you have info, please post as a comment... I'd love to know more about this.)

In the meantime, I continue to marvel at the inter-connectedness of the ecosystem.  I thought our pond would help birds and toads.  But bees???  What a nice surprise -- it seems to help them, too.