Is this a drone?

[Ringlander]

Yesterday I was doing some fibreglass repairs on an old Lotus in my workshop and put the heaters on to get the temperature up to help the 'glass cure. Quite often when I do this at this time of year it wakes up one or two butterflies or wasps who fly around thinking the spring has arrived only to be severely disappointed when I turn the heaters off a short while later. This time I found this little friend wandering around on the bonnet of one of the cars. Is it a drone? At this time of year? And looking rather old with a bald abdomen and ragged wings? Or is it another species altogether? (Sorry about the state of my hands and Honey the cat...) I haven't seen any drones flying from any of my hives yet here in Norfolk (UK) although the bees are starting to get quite active on the occasional sunny day. Your thoughts , as always, appreciated. NIck

 

[Boston Bees]

Fly

 

[Antipodes]

Fly

Agreed. Looks like one of the mimic flies.
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/flies/drone-fly

 

[JamezF]

Thirded. In a honey bee I'd expect to see a narrowing of the junction between the thorax and abdomen, and for the two pairs of wings to be fairly obvious. This one doesn't have that obvious separation of the thorax and abdomen though that could just be the angle of the photos, and only appears to have a single pair of wings. For me the eyes look entirely wrong too, in terms of how they're carried on the head, and there are no obvious antennae. And the shape of the rear set of legs looks wrong.

James

 

[Curly green finger's]

Forget about the fly that cats a cuttey

 

[Ringlander]

Lovely, thanks for the replies and the really informative link, at least I don't feel so bad about being unsure what he was. Honey's my assistant beekeeper, she always comes up to the hives in the garden with me to see what's going on. She quite likes the telly too....

 

[Curly green finger's]

Lovely, thanks for the replies and the really informative link, at least I don't feel so bad about being unsure what he was. Honey's my assistant beekeeper, she always comes up to the hives in the garden with me to see what's going on. She quite likes the telly too....View attachment 30691

Our Maizey mosh