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'.

14th July 2009

In the morning I was visiting Chris and Christine Johnson, who had moved to South Uist and were actively recording biodiversity and also intent on managing the land appropriately for wildlife.  They had already recorded Great Yellow Bumblebee, and we soon saw a worker in one of the first clumps of Red Clover.  A rather worn Heath Bumblebee was also here.  A field that had been released from high grazing pressure was already showing a high diversity of machair flowers, which was very encouraging.  The different fields would have different cutting and grazing management under their proposals, which will help both flowers and bees, and provide valuable winter feed for livestock that otherwise, and at great expense, will need to be bought in.  Then on to look at the cropped and fallow strips on the machair around the appropriately-named Loch Bee.  Sure enough, we saw a Great Yellow Bumblebee on Red Clover there, and a flock of Golden Plovers, with their 'Plovers Pages', the Dunlin, alongside.  This was a reminder that as the Great Yellow Bumblebees are getting underway, for wading birds the breeding season is effectively over.  There was also a discussion about the possible impact the loss of jobs from QinetiQ at the MOD ranges, with whom many crofters have employment.

 

A brief stop at the B&B, where a queen 'Cryptic' White-tailed Bumblebee was visiting the borage.  A year ago the White-tailed Bumblebee was split into three species, but in the field only the queens can be told apart.  This one, with a black 'S' mark near the tips of the collar, is Bombus cryptarum, the other one on the islands being the Northern White-tailed Bumblebee Bombus magnus. All appear to be common species, without overt concerns for their future numbers.

 

The evening talk at the Claddach Kirkibost Centre was very well attended, and my thanks to Lyn and Brian Lowe for all their help in organising this in addition to the regular programme of Curracag (Gaelic name of the Lapwing), the Natural History Society of the Outer Hebrides.  It had become very clear on my visit that the Western Isles are the stronghold of the Great Yellow Bumblebee, with perhaps 75% or more of all the UK's Great Yellow Bumblebees.  However, we do not know how many nests this represent.  It could be as few as 500, so half the number of calling Corncrakes in Scotland, it could be significantly more or worryingly, rather less.  Local expert Bill Neill reckons bee numbers to be down even here, which makes the role of volunteers under the species Action Framework even more vital, in carrying out repeated counts that over time will give us a picture of the trends in numbers of bees, as an approximation to the key figure, the number of nests.

 

 

13th July 2009

Time to head north this morning, stopping off en route to visit the local office of Scottish natural Heritage at Stilligarry, at Loch Druidibeg National Nature Reserve.  I had hope dot meet with a local crofter who had contacted the Trust regarding the Askernish Golf Course , but unfortunately although we spoke later on, our paths did not cross.  The SNH office has a patch of uncut wildflowers outside, so surely before too long there will be a Great Yellow there!  A couple of Dark Green Fritillaries here too, not far off their northern limit on the islands.

 

Another glorious day, but the news from the mainland was of heavy rain and thunder – surely not good news for the nests of bumblebees.  The early season had meant that there were many males out earlier than usual, but new daughter queens of only a few species had been recorded to date.  The bad weather could be at a very sensitive time for the emergence of new daughter queens – the recruitment for next year's nests.

 

I stopped at a likely looking area on Benbecula, and in a 100m stretch recorded six Moss Carder Bees, four Great Yellow Bumblebees and two Garden Bumblebees.  As in other areas, it seems that in the richest patches of Red Clover the number of Great Yellows approaches that of the Moss Carder, but where there is more of other flowers, such as White Clover, the Moss Carder greatly outnumbers the Great Yellow.

 

It was on to Balranald for the afternoon's 'Bumblebee Safari', which saw a number of people arrive. There was a sharp shower of rain beforehand but for the rest of the afternoon it was sunny, warm and with only a light breeze – the wind can make finding bumblebees very problematic!  The 'Safari' was very successful, as we saw all five of the likely bumblebee species on the reserve, plus a number of the rare Northern Colletes solitary bee.  The Great Yellow Bumblebee was the last to be seen, and as on my earlier recce with Jamie Boyle, they were in the main area of Red Clover.  One of the workers we saw was very small and faded, suggesting it was one of the earliest workers to be reared.  This would put the date for that nest establishment somewhere around mid-June.  Although the queen would emerge rather earlier, such as late May or early June, this does illustrate how much later this species emerges in the year compared with our familiar garden species.

 

Back to the B&B in Benbecula, where I was warmly greeted by my landlady, Agnes.  Agnes is a very keen gardener and there was a surprise in store. An astonishing caterpillar – a Puss Moth – was intently devouring one of her willows.  Also, her Borage was clearly very attractive to the local White-tailed Bumblebees.  Later that evening, two Corncrakes were 'duelling' across her field at the back of the house.

 

12th July 2009

An opportunity this morning to visit the nearby Kildonan Museum, which is well worth a visit.  The weather fairly dull but clearing up fairly quickly.  I took a leisurely look at the area between Stoneybridge and Bornish, checking to see what bumblebees were using the road verges, many of which had abundant flowers.  The expected Moss Carder Bee and Garden Bumblebee were present, as well as a surprisingly fresh queen Heath Bumblebee – one of this year's new daughter queens already?  No Great Yellow Bumblebees along the verges at Stoneybridge, but the fields are rather damp with a more acid grassland feel, so not quite their preferred machair habitat.  Near the cemetery, that grassland character had changed and I quickly saw a Great Yellow Bumblebee worker, and well as a couple of Heath Bumblebee workers.

 

On towards Bornish, where the weather was now bright, sunny and warm.  Several butterflies included a Dark Green Fritillary, and the nearby clover-rich machair held several Great Yellow Bumblebee workers, foraging on both White Clover and Red Clover.  Back to base for preparation for Tuesday's evening talk.

11th July 2009

*Negative news from Bettyhill, Sutherland, received this evening from David Adamson. The weather wasn't great, and thankfully botany, scenery and birds, friendliness of people, and the quiet all compensated for paucity of bumblebees.  Fingers crossed there will be records later in the summer*

 

A sound night's sleep and then off to meet RSPB warden at Balranald, Jamie Boyle.  Jamie's twenty years on the island of North Uist really shows in his understanding of the machair, the cropping and grazing practices and the wildlife that exists there.  To add an African flavour, a Quail started calling as we were looking at one of the rye grass and cereal crops (rich in arable wildflowers).  We saw a couple of Great Yellow Bumblebee workers at Red Clover, which augured well for Monday's 'Bumblebee Safari'.  I did some computer work at the vistor centre (my own mobile broadband – not the centre's).  However, I noted that the Kirkibost Centre on North Uist – where I give a talk on Tuesday evening - has WiFi and broadband, plus the very important tea and cakes!

 

It was meant to be a gentle drive back to the B&B and more computer work, but it really was a glorious day.  I stopped at Howmore (one Great Yellow Bumblebee worker, Red Clover again, and also a Large Heath butterfly). Plus, I managed a photo of the striking Moss Carder Bee, which seem to be more wary than the Great Yellows.  Briefly, a stop at the Hebridean Smokehouse to put in an order for scallops and sea trout, to arrive when I get back home.  A stop at Daliburgh for a takeout supper turned into a further delay, as I was at Askernish Golf Course (which has changed much since I played, badly, here in 2004).  The course is now 18 holes, which caused concerns locally, although winter grazing of stock continues, and there are quite a few useful flowers for the bees.  There is a new interpretation board, put together by Bill Neill whose studio is also at Askernish, and I was chatting to Donald in the club house, who, remarkably, recognised a photo used in our advice leaflet (jointly produced with RSPB) as being by his croft!  He told me how to get there and I took photos that as near as possible replicate the one in the leaflet.  There is evidently less Red Clover at this site now, formerly used as a football pitch, with hogweed now established, and more ragwort, but plenty of bee activity at 7:30 p.m., including ten Great Yellow Bumblebee workers!

 

Finally made it back to make a couple of calls for the week ahead, found a lovely Gold Spot moth on a wall of the B&B, and a Red-throated Diver flew over calling as a rich sunset developed ahead of expected strong winds.

 

 

10th July 2009

A calm day, with little wind, but this only invited the flies out to play, with a few clegs (horse-flies) using them as cover to sidle in and try and take a lump out of a slow-moving, hapless bombologist!

This was mainly a day of searching before the ferry to Eriskay, and a couple of sites on the west coast bore some resemblance to Sutherland sites for Great Yellow Bumblebee. There was a range of flowers in the dunes, backed with and without flower-rich machair grassland. Billy the black Labrador decided I was interesting enough to follow, but we both failed to find any Great Yellow Bumblebees, though there were plenty of Moss Carder Bees, another priority species, but the 'common rare bumblebee' on many of the islands.

I moved to the north, towards Eoligarry, passing the beach airstrip for the Barra flight. The very first field with ample Red Clover that I stopped to look at held a queen but also my first worker Great Yellow Bumblebee. As with the Vatersay queens, this queen was also looking a little bald and faded. However, the worker was bright and fresh, and busy collecting pollen. There was also a female Northern Colletes solitary bee with pollen here, resting among the vegetation – another UK Priority Species with a Scottish stronghold on the Outer Hebrides. Some Pyramidal Orchids here were an astonishingly deep pink.

At a shingle area nearby, I watched as another worn, balding, queen Great Yellow Bumblebee visited the same small patch of Red Clover at 20-30 minute intervals. On one visit, undisturbed, she foraged in this small patch - no more than a few feet across - for 18 minutes. It was presumably the same queen provisioning her nest with pollen, but it proved impossible to track her back to a nest, and trying to run up a shingle bank provided its own entertainment. Another Crossbill flew over, first north and then south, and hopefully it would find some food to enable it to reach the mainland and plentiful conifers.

At Eoligarry Jetty the flies were phenomenally attentive; it really is not nice when once gets stuck between your eye and the inside of your glasses! However, this was a real hotbed of Great Yellow Bumblebee activity, with five queens and 8 workers, all at Red Clover except one worker, that was collecting pollen at Yellow Rattle.

Back to check on of the earlier sites, and despite a lack of Billy, I did find a worker Great Yellow Bumblebee, again at Red Clover. Then off for a tea before the ferry, stopping to take some snaps of the delightful, black, Hebridean sheep.

The short crossing to Eriskay was beautiful, and myself and an Irish chap did our best to find something. Plenty of Razorbills with silvery 'moustaches' of sand eels boded well for the breeding season. Swiftly over the causeway to South Uist, and dropping off to meet Bill Neill, well-known local artist who is actively involved, and co-ordinating local volunteers under the Species Action Framework. No Great Yellows in the garden this evening (but one of the volunteers was visiting), but there were several Northern Colletes, and a pair of Peregrines cruised overhead.

9th July 2009

*Good news from Caithness - a Great Yellow Bumblebee seen at a site east of Thurso, where I saw one last August*

 

A few stops to make on Tiree and then off on the once-a-week midday ferry to Barra.  The first silage was being cut and baled on Tiree, as essential winter feed for the cattle that are the mainstay of Tiree, and whose grazing helps maintain the wonderful machair habitat for bumblebees, corncrakes and wading birds.

 

A Crossbill flew over the ferry terminal, presaging perhaps a possible irruption, but the ferry crossing was quiet, with no dolphins or basking sharks, just a few shearwaters and puffins.

 

Once on Barra, I headed for Vatersay to the south, across the causeway.  The first place I stopped showed great promise for Great Yellow Bumblebee.  I met a crofter weeding his potato crop, who told me of the pattern of rotation of crops and fallows, with winter grazing by those all-important cattle.  Could there be a better habitat for Great Yellow Bumblebee, with abundant flowers of red clover among other species, and proximity to likely nesting areas.  I found five (!) queen Great Yellow Bumblebees, all of which were collecting red clover pollen, and caught one to show the crofter.  There were a few other bees here too, as well as Corn Buntings and a couple of calling Corncrakes.  Buoyed by this, I looked at Vatersay village, following a track to the dunes.  Another queen Great Yellow Bumblebee flew by here, in an area rich with Red and White Clover, and Kidney Vetch.

 

Back at my digs for the night, where an eclectic mix of media (TV and journalism), political diary manager, art historian, sailing instructors and bombologist discussed bees (of course!), a forthcoming Coast programme (on 18^th August - Hebrides and Faeroes), the length and capacity of CalMac ferries, and more.

 

 

8th July 2009

Another bright and breezy day, and there were now two Great Yellow Bumblebee queens at the Viper's Bugloss!  The main aims for the day were to visit two crofters and look at a number of fields.  Both had previously been in an agri-environment scheme, and both were looking to participate in the new scheme in Scotland, Rural Priorities, launched last spring.  One indeed had already been successful with an application, largely owing to management aimed at the Corncrake, and we certainly heard a few during the day so the recipe seems to work!  There were even female Northern Colletes bees collecting pollen from a garden Hebe, as well as a queen Moss Carder Bee.  Management for Corncrake can also benefit Great Yellow Bumblebee, such as the late cutting of flower-rich grasslands in September.

 

A quick lunch and there was time for a search in the dunes at Vaul Bay.  These are sheep grazed at this time of year, though there is still some flowering of useful bumblebee plants, such as White Clover, Kidney Vetch and Self Heal.  A Red-shanked Carder Bee worker with pollen was at Red Bartsia, and Red-tailed Bumblebee workers were busy at White Clover.  I caught another bee and was surprised to find that it was a male Red-shanked Carder Bee.  Perhaps another indication of an early spring?  The long antennae gave it away as amale, but there were paler, yellowish hairs on the thorax and abdomen that the queens and workers do not have, though these are much fainter and slightly differently distributed than in Red-tailed Bumblebee males.  I checked a couple of other features and was happy when a photo taken of the bee in the tube came out better than expected.

 

The final visit to a croft near Milton produced Moss Carder Bee and Red-shanked Carder Bee but unfortunately not Great Yellow, so not the full set of priority bumblebees on this visit.  There was a wide range of habitats, including damper and more heathy habitats.  A Highland Darter dragonfly was here too.

 

Back to base to prepare for the off tomorrow, and catch up with the blog.  Next stop will be the island of Barra tomorrow.

 

 

7th July 2009

The wind was a bit brisker today, but early clouds soon dispersed and we were in for another sunny day on the Isle of Tiree.  With Jamie deposited at Balephetrish, myself and the UK grasslands folk went to Balephuil in the south west.  There is a plant walk described for here that takes in a range of habitats (it is in a recent book of the plants of Coll and Tiree, with John Bowler a co-author).  Some shelter could be found in the dunes from the wind, with abundant Kidney Vetch, and also aggregations of the rare solitary bee, Colletes floralis, or Northern Colletes.  This is a small but exquisite bee, and we saw many here.  I had to cut short my time here, as there was a local crofter nearby who I had chatted with over the phone but had not yet had the chance to meet.  A much-welcome cup of tea was offered and gratefully accepted, and agreed to meet up at the croft (at the eastern end of Tiree) the following afternoon.

 

Back to find Jamie at Balephetrish, where we would all reconvene.  He had seen (and filmed!) a Great Yellow Bumblebee queen soon after arriving, and had then gone on to find a Red-tailed Bumblebee nest.  There were many Moss Carder Bees present, and then we came across another queen Great Yellow Bumblebee, this time collecting pollen from Kidney Vetch, but she was soon away.  Ten minutes later, we had just caught a Red-shanked Carder Bee (so all three of Scotland's Priority bumblebees were here!), and the grasslands gang appeared.  We had to confess that we had just seen a Great Yellow Bumblebee...however, an hour later and after a couple of fleeting sightings, I managed to catch a queen that let us have a close look - the catching itself providing considerable entertainment up a steep gully.  A great way to end the day, as Jamie would leave tonight and the others the next morning.  Having established our rendezvous for the evening, at "Elephants End", with fabulous local food, Jamie and I continued to look for bees a while longer, and added a Red-shanked Carder Bee nest (the entrance hole is small round and dark against the dry thatch of dead grass, low down in the photo).  The icing on the cake was another queen Great Yellow Bumblebee in the garden where I was staying, this one visiting Viper's Bugloss late evening, a terrific bumblebee plant but not one native to Tiree. The photo is blurred, but shows the diagnostic pattern well enough.

6th July 2009

After a week back in Stirling, it's out to the islands.  During the past week, however, Pippa Rayner, newly in post with BBCT for England & Wales. visited from the deep south. We attended a Perthshire Grasslands project event, run by Christine Hall of the Scottish Agricultural College, with Richard Lockett, formerly of FWAG Scotland but now set up as Lockett Agri-Environmental after FWAG Scotland was wound up.  We caught several bumblebees, including the Blaeberry Bumblebee and a queen Broken-belted Bumblebee, another upland speciality in Scotland.

 

So, now to the Argyll Islands (Tiree, but sadly not Coll this year) and then north through the Outer Hebrides.  After an early morning drive to Oban, I met up with six grassland specialists representing the country agencies for all the UK.  Also on board was Jamie Loughlin, who was keen to film Great Yellow Bumblebee as part of a dissertation on bumblebee conservation.  A damp start as we headed up the Sound of Mull, but by the time we arrived at Tiree, the sun was shining and we saw two Basking Sharks in quick succession.

 

After dropping Jamie off at the dunes and machair at Hough, I rejoined the group where we were met by the RSPB representative on Tiree, John Bowler.  John's knowledge of and fondess for the island was clear, and we visited The Reef, a huge flat, flower-rich machair site with hundreds of pairs of breeding waders, and also Arctic and Little Terns, both of which were doing well this year.  John pointed out an area where he had found two Great Yellow Bumblebee nests in the past, but our search here was fruitless.  However, the Creeping Thistle was covered in caterpillars, presumably those of Painted Lady butterflies that had swarmed into the country at the end of May. The last of the Early Marsh Orchids were in flower, and there were more Frog Orchids here.

 

We picked up Jamie, who had had better success with bees, having seen two Great Yellow Bumblebee queens.  However, they were just too shy when it came to filming.  We stopped at Balephetrish - highly recommended by John Bowler - to look at the dunes there, and it was clear there were more bees at this site, including several of the distinctive island form of the Moss Carder Bee.  A big bee flew by - looked like a Great Yellow Bumblebee.  We would be back here tomorrow!