I was out admiring my flowers yesterday and while checking out all the insect activity around the bog sage I saw what looked a really small bee. At first I thought it was a little wasp, but then I noticed that it had faint stripes and a little bit of fuzz on it's body and pollen sacks on it's legs. It was probably less than a quarter of the size of a normal honeybee, I've never seen or heard of such a bee before. But after noticing one I saw another later on in the same patch of sage, they are so little they can climb into the sage flower the way a bumblebee climbs into a nasturtium.

Are they common and I just never knew about them before? Or it is not a bee at all and I'm completely mistaken? I'm suddenly very curious.