The bilberry bumblebee (Bombus monticola) is one of the three target species in the Community Science bumblebee survey. It is a species well adapted for living in the cooler uplands of Britain, and as its name suggests can often be seen feeding on flowers of bilberry in late spring and early summer.
The morning after a long day of field work at the Roaches in
the south-west Peak District it dawned on me that upon arriving home in
Holmfirth, West Yorkshire the evening before, I had not unpacked my rucksack.
I
got to work removing my lunch box and the tools I’d been using only to hear a
very strange sound emanating from the bottom of my bag.
At first I thought it
may be air escaping from my half-drunk flask of tea but removing that did not
stop the noise. Deciding something must have made a temporary home in my bag I
took it outside and with trepidation emptied the contents on to the ground. To
my surprise out popped a beautiful, fresh-looking, queen, white-tailed
bumblebee!
Having travelled nearly 40 miles in my bag the previous day
I imagined the poor bee was hungry and as she seemed unable to fly I fed her up
on some sugar water which she seemed to enjoy as you can see in the video
below.
After she’d eaten I placed her on an open flower so that she
could warm up and hopefully get some sweet nectar inside her. Unfortunately the
weather had different ideas and the torrential downpour that followed forced me
to move the lethargic insect to a sheltered spot underneath some winter heather.
Bumblebee on the step - close to death
The following afternoon I thought I should check on my
garden guest. Disappointment followed as I found that she hadn’t moved an inch
and didn’t look any more active than before. I again moved to her into the sun
on the open cosmos flower so she could warm up and eat. She had other ideas and
after a couple of hours I found her on the garden step looking close to death.
One final attempt to rejuvenate her was needed so with
garden gloves on I lifted her up and put her on the flower head of a nearby lavender
plant.
She quickly started lapping up nectar from the tiny flowers and once all
were exhausted her little legs were waving at me to help her to the next one. I
repeated this several times and while her energy looked to be increasing she
still didn’t seem able to fly.
With hope dwindling my partner then had the great idea of
pulling the lavender flowers together and trapping them against one another to
form a network of bridges so that I could have a rest and the bee could make
her own way between the flowers. This was the move that made all the
difference!
Just a few minutes later, to our astonishment, the bee lifted into
the air and buzzed away. Her four day ordeal and epic journey had not, as I had
feared, been the end of her and I like to think she’s now found a safe hole nearby
to hibernate for winter so that she can visit us again next spring.
Guest blog post by Community Science work experience student Izzy:
Today, I participated in the monthly bumblebee survey
on Edale Transect 1. This transect is split into ten different sections,
starting partially up the path (SK 12168 6552) that leads along Grindsbrook
Clough at the north end of Edale, and continuing for just over a kilometre to
SK 11438 87250.
The view along Grindsbrook Clough
The rules for the transect are relatively simple – you keep
an eye out for any bumblebees that are within a two-metre radius from the
centre of the path, and are less than four metres in front of you, forming a four-metre
by four-metre ‘box’. Any bees that fly through the box are also valid, as long as they are under two metres from the ground. These
measurements are to ensure that the survey is accurate every month, as surveyors
will be looking for bees in the same places.
You then need to keep a tally the different species of bees for
each section of the transect.This time,
we saw a grand total of 59 bumblebees, of 5 different species – bilberry,
heath, early, tree, and white-tailed.
Although the bees were very lethargic (perhaps because of
the cloudy weather?), we saw twenty-four bilberry bumblebees, which was great; this species is one of the bees that Moors for the Future is focussing on, as
they are good indicators for climate change.
A male bilberry bumblebee
Luckily, bilberry bumblebees are quite easy to spot once you
know what you’re looking for – their distinctive fiery red tails stand out
amongst the moorland plants.
These are a few other bee photos that I took during the
transect:
Heath bumblebee
Heath bumblebee
White- or buff-tailed bumblebee
We saw a few bird species as well, including a grey wagtail,
some stonechats, and a curlew!
Last Friday was the inaugural 'Creative Conservation' Community Science event with Crisis members from Sheffield - consisting of a guided wildlife walk around the Millstone Edge and Padley Gorge area led by the Community Science team and Tom from the National Park Ranger Service, followed by an introduction to Community Science (and lunch stop) at Brunt's Barn near Grindleford.
Peacock butterfly (c) Steve Smith
Crisis member and photographer Steve took some pictures of some of the wildlife which was spotted, including the Community Science target species the Peacock Butterfly (above) - seen and recorded just below Millstone Edge.
A northern hairy wood ant nest (c) Steve Smith
Some of the other species also seen/heard and talked about were: orange-tip butterfly; early, white-tailed and tree bumblebees; willow warbler, chiffchaff, redstart, pied flycatcher, meadow and tree pipits, stonechat, buzzard, great spotted woodpecker, northern hairy wood ants, bluebells, lesser celandine, wood sorrel and birch polypore fungus (also known as razor strop) and red kite.
Female pied flycatcher (c) Steve Smith
Red kite (c) Steve Smith
Thanks to Steve for sending in these great photos, and also to everyone else involved for making it a very enjoyable day.
As a sequel
to the Sphagnum moss workshop that we did with the Moors for the Future, 15 of
us headed to Longshaw Estate on Saturday to learn how to identify and survey
bumblebees.
SUCV looking for bees!
Loss
of flowers for foraging, loss of suitable nest sites and use of pesticides have
led to the rapid decline of many bumblebee species in Britain. Bumblebees are
better pollinators than most other species of bees because they can travel up to
2km from their nests in search of flowers and their tongues are much varied in length.Hence, it is essential to save them.
Studying bumblebee specimens before heading out
For this
reason, Moors for the Future has initiated surveys to note down the abundance
of bumblebees around moorland. They have chosen three species which are easy to
identify and will be interesting to track in response to climate change. The
morning session gave us pointers to identify these three bumblebee species and
a few others commonly found in the area.In the
afternoon, we took a walk around Longshaw Estate in search of some bees.
Bumblebee survey materials
Since
it is quite early for them to come out of hibernation, we could spot only two.
However, the weather was sunny and everyone had a great time!
SUCV taking a well earned break at the end of the day
Thanks to everyone who came for the workshop and
a big thank you to Tom, for conducting it.
Guest blog post by Liesel Bott, Sheffield Wildlife Trust volunteer Nature Reserves Assistant
Wednesday 1st July may have been the hottest day
of the year for Sheffield but this didn’t stop Sheffield & Rotherham
Wildlife Trust and the Community Science team from setting up a new bumblebee
transect at Blacka Moor nature reserve.
We spent an enjoyable morning walking the new transect route
to assess its suitability and record the habitats present along the way. The
good mix of heathland and woodland habitats complete with the hot sunny weather
meant the bumblebees were out in force. We recorded over 40 sightings in around
1km with a bilberry bumblebee, one of the target species, spotted in the last
section.
The Blacka Moor bumblebee transect is ready to go and waiting
for more community science volunteers to discover and survey. If you are
interested in helping survey this transect please contact Community Science moorcitizens@peakdistrict.gov.uk
or Sheffield Wildlife Trust nature.reserves@wildsheffield.com
One of our fantastic Community Scientists - Rob - recently got in touch to tell us about an interesting fact he discovered whilst reading 'Wood's New Illustrated Natural History'.
Written in 1885 by the Reverend J. G. Wood (a parson-naturalist who also edited Boys Own magazine and gave illustrated 'sketch lectures' on zoology), the book refers to bumblebees as 'humble bees', due to the humming sound they make whilst flying. Apparently Darwin also referred to them as humble bees, and the name changed to the more familiar 'bumblebee' during the 20th century.
If you have any interesting natural history facts, especially about bumblebees, then do send them in!
