15th July 2009

In the morning, there was plenty of bee activity at the Borage, and even a Great Yellow Bumblebee appeared fleetingly, but, as a long-tongued species, this is not on of its preferred flowers, so it was away within a few seconds.  I had a meeting today, organised by the RSPB advisory officer, Bridget England, who has a lot of experience in putting together applications for agri-environment support through the Rural Priorities scheme. Bridget also knows about Great Yellow Bumblebees, since she used to work with the Trust, and was the driving force behind the Trust's very successful Education Pack, which is aimed at children in Primary years 2 and 3, and is in English and Gaelic.  The meeting brought together RSPB, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Government Rural Payments Department, and the local Scottish Agricultural College advisor, so I was delighted to be invited to present an agenda piece on Great Yellow Bumblebee.  We were discussing elements within the Rural Priorities agri-environment scheme, and the importance particularly for Corncrake, the management for which can have significant benefits for Great Yellow Bumblebee.  In addition, the Corn Bunting was discussed, which was in the news headlines the other day with an 83% decline, as well as farmland waders such as Lapwing.

 

Soup and a roll followed, and then we parted company, as I was off on the afternoon ferry from Berneray to Leverburgh on Harris.  I was interested to look at some of the areas of machair that are not currently parts of designated sites, and there are substantial areas of these.  I went up the 'Committee Road' in the hope of a few photos of the distinctive Hebridean form of the Heath Bumblebee, with its peach, not white coloured tail.  They were easy to find, but feeding on the bell heather they are nearly always upside down – the blue tit of the bumblebee world?  A couple of large hoverflies included the splendid bumblebee mimic Volucella bombylans with its extravagantly adorned antennae. The ones on Tiree had been black with a red tail (i.e. closely resembling the Red-tailed Bumblebee and Red-shanked Carder Bee), but this was yellow and black with a white tail.

 

I spent a little time at Solas on the mchair there, but the bees were mainly on the uncultivated macahir by the dunes.  The first big patch of Red Clover did have a Great Yellow Bumblebee worker, and there were several Northern Colletes bees present too.  I met a couple from Kintyre, who were camping (and kindly offered tea!).  Phil was a photographer and he was soon snapping Northern Colletes – hopefully they will also find a Great Yellow!  Off to the ferry terminal, and waiting in the queue I nipped out and took a photo of a Moss Carder Bee queen (rather worn) on a flowering Spear Thistle when a Garden Bumblebee worker landed alongside on the same flowerhead.  The picture hopefully shows the clear size difference!  The ferry crossing was notable mainly for the beautiful Arctic Terns that were so close to the boat in perfect light, their coral-red beaks showing clearly.  There were even ow a few fledged young on the wing as well.  The star bird was a Razorbill that had caught a fish that looked far too big to carry, let alone feed to a chick.  It jealously guarded its prize as the ferry cruised by.

 

A sunny evening but I needed to get to the B&B in Scadabay, via a bite to eat in Tarbert (though a Herring Gull nearly made off with that as I was distracted by a Moss Carder Bee).  I declined the temptation to stop at one or two places, such as the golf course at Scarasta, to look for Great Yellow Bumblebees, which appear to be scarcer and more localised on Lewis and Harris than on the islands to the south.  A warm welcome on my arrival after negotiating the 'Golden Road' safely, to be awakened at 4 a.m. by a sheep head-butting its own reflection from within the nearby bus shelter.  I watched for a while, intrigued, as it clearly knew the way out of the bus shelter, but seemed to want the last word with the 'imposter'.