End of season update

A little late, but this week I'll be summarising what was happening at the end of the Great Yellow Bumblebee flight season.  There was plenty of interest as numbers peak in August, and the new males and queens are reared.

 

August 12th and it was time to leave Orkney, after a really positive and encouraging few days.  The day dawned somewhat drizzly, but I had a little time before the lunchtime ferry.  I checked a couple of 'Birds & Bees' crops of farm contacts, one on Mainland (near Kirkwall) and one on South Ronaldsay.  Great Yellows are thought less inclined to forage in poor weather than, for example, the Moss Carder Bee.  However, the first crop soon produced a couple of workers, both active at Phacelia.  I also realised that I had no photos of males, and made a hasty stop at a large bank of knapweed on Burray, just across the causeway from South Ronaldsay (there is a handy car park here).  Sure enough, there were males, but it was a bit breezy.  Holding the knapweed stems steady I was able to get a few shots showing the long antennae.   On to South Ronaldsay and I had barely got out of the car when I saw a Great Yellow Bumblebee resting on tufted vetch in the verge.  This was a male, and rather groggy (who wouldn't be, after sleeping rough all night?).  I left him in peace and headed to Graham Scott's 'Birds & Bees' crop.  Graham is an advisor with the Scottish Agricultural College and is promoting to his clients the benefits that can be provided for bumblebees.  The land had a mosaic of habitats, with the flower-rich crop, and flower-rich ditch, a newly sown area of species-rich grassland (following a recommended mix), while nearby is a flower-rich, 'conservation verge' promoted by Orkney Council.  I quickly found Great Yellow Bumblebee in the crop - another worker at Phacelia - but had to head off.  A quick cup of tea and a chat with John Crossley, the Species Action Framework representative on Orkney (who rediscovered the Great Yellow Bumblebee in Orkney on his farm), then a scamper for the ferry. 

 

We had a visitor on the ferry crossing as we neared the mainland - a male White-tailed Bumblebee!  I plucked him off a lady's coat, explaining that he couldn't sting, and took him with me to Caithness.  Having showed him the RSPB Broubster Leans 'Birds & Bees' crop, he promptly took off in the other direction, but he arced back into it.  I was here to meet folk from RSPB, Caithness LBAP and some Species Action Framework volunteers, as we were going to look for Great Yellow Bumblebees here.  We were catching up, chatting, when I spotted a Great Yellow Bumblebee at the edge of the crop, some distance away - it certainly helps to get your eye in!  I popped her in a pot and we were all able to get a good look.  This was the first Great Yellow Bumblebee that some people had seen, so a very satisfactory start.  It was a bit windy, and working along the edge of the crop we came across a few other species, such as Broken-belted, but not the Moss Carder Bee we were hopeful of.

 

I also received an email from Orkney artist Tracy Hall, who took this wonderful picture of a Great Yellow Bumblebee in her garden on Burray.  This one, another male, is at globe thistle, a very popular bumblebee flower.  It really is wonderful that more people are reporting this rare bumblebee, and although not many of us will see Great Yellow Bumblebee in our garden, it goes to show that when we provide valuable pollen and nectar, the bees are very good at finding it.