F. podzolica this early?

[HrVanker]

The dog park I regularly take my puppy to has a rather large ant population. In the middle of the field I always see little holes with dirt piled around them.

Today, I found what appears to be a F. podzolica queen at one of the benches in the park. She is between 6 and 10mm long, large head, swollen gaster that appears to have a grey-ish ring around the middle.

She doesn't appear to be any of the other common small ants in my area, but it seems a little early for them to be flying. Is this common?

Will post pics later.

[Antloverhuman]

Cleaning up