early bumblebee nests

At home the other evening I watched a queen early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) sail directly into our blue tit nestbox.  She stayed in for about 20 minutes, then headed off, presumably foraging, and came back after a few minutes.  It seemed to be a case of 'blink and you miss her', so spotting her comings and goings was harder, perhaps, than dealing with one of the "Weeping Angels" from Doctor Who!  Remarkably, yesterday evening I saw another queen early bumblebee sailing in - this time straight into one of our bumblebee nestboxes!  Yes, this was another nest, just a few steps from the other one.  Maybe it was the stones stacked around the entrance hole that did the trick, the box has been there for 5 years. I think this was a 'top tip' we received from one of our Buzzword contributors.  Fingers crossed for lots of efficient fruit pollination over the coming weeks, with the blueberries, apples and pear finally opening up for business.  No honeybees yet, though there was a large solitary bee on a dandelion, caked with yellow pollen, that initially made me think of honeybee.  No pollen baskets though.  It was perhaps Andrena nigroaenea.

 

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The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010

The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

April flies by

Quite a few April showers around but plenty of bumblebee activity, which is encouraging.  I saw my first cuckoo bumblebee (forest cuckoo bumblebee Bombus sylvestris) on 17^th, and an early bumblebee queen seems to have set up shop in our blue tit nest box.  I was also sent photos of the blaeberry bumblebee Bombus monticola, from the Borders (Garry Mabon) and Aberdeenshire (Mike Daniels), both of which were new 10km squares However, time outside has been limited, with a lot of planning for the field season, finalising dates for visits and events, ordering seed mixes and a number of meetings.  Last week I was in Inverness for a couple of days, visiting SNH to talk about monitoring and possible field margin benefits for bumblebees that could be supported through agri-environment and attending a steering group meeting for the great yellow bumblebee Species Action Framework project. I also met up with Janet Bromham, one of the Highland Council biodiversity officers, to chat about progress on a project that Janet was instrumental in supporting, and possibilities for road verge management along the lines of what has been tried in Orkney.  The SAF meeting suffered at least one Vulcan tragedy, with the SNH invertebrate specialist stranded abroad.  However, we still had a productive meeting, with the usual split screen video conferencing with the islands and the north Highlands.  At home, the blackbirds have fledged.  Some bumblebee pictures soon, I promise!

 

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The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010

The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

pollen collection - at last!

Today at lunchtime I made the most of the weather and took a short walk.  I finally saw a bumblebee collecting pollen at sallow catkins.  Surprisingly it was a white-tailed bumblebee, rather than the more common buff-tailed (outnumbering the white-taileds here by approximately 3:1).  To give an indication of the lateness of this spring compared with 2009, I saw my first worker bumblebee on 19th April last year.  No doubt other queens have already established nests this spring, but even so it will be four weeks or so from laying eggs to the first workers emerging.

 

Early bumblebees were about as common as white-tailed, and the majority of bumblebees were nest-searching.  A few honeybees were also collecting pollen, and there was another bee fly, this time at male sallow catkins.  Quite a few butterflies, mainly peacocks, with a couple of small tortoiseshells and two whites, one a green-veined white and the other probably a small white.

 

A month or more to go before the first great yellow bumblebees emerge!  We should - hopefully - start seeing the rest of the 'Big 6' in numbers soon around Stirling, and the first cuckoo bumblebees.

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The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010

The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

otterly magical

A glorious Sunday morning, and took a walk to the west side of the village.  Single chiffchaff, willlow warbler and blackcap had arrived to stake their teritorial claims, but remarkably there were three otters - a mother and 2 cubs - on the river.  Mum quickly caught an eel and a flatfish for the youngsters to deal with.  They were not bothered by us standing just 30m away.  We left them in peace, with the year's first red-tailed bumblebee Bombus lapidarius something of an anticlimax.

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The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010

The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

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solitary bees emerging

The first solitary bee of the year seen the other day, shortly after followed by the first swallow.  The bee is a chestnut and black bee, quite possibly Andrena clarkella.  There are over 50 species of Andrena in the UK, so this one genus of solitary bee has more than twice the number of species than there are bumblebees in the UK! Check out the photo gallery at the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society.  Identification to species generally requires confirmation under a microscope, but many solitaries - easily overlooked - are decidedly 'cute' and worth keeping an eye out for.  It is still around today but continues to be unapproachable, unlike the year's first red mason bee Osmia rufa which was at winter heather.  This is the same day as the first last year (2nd Saturday in April).  There has been a bee fly Bombylius major around too - this parasitises solitary bees.  Life's rich tapestry!

 

There have been a couple of common carder bees out too (Bombus pascuorum) but still slow going for bumblebees. There were nest-searching queens of three species seen today in the lovely weather, but still none collecting pollen.  Still seems to be only sallow catkins available from the local native flora, and at night these are visited by a number of moths, including an assortment of quakers, plus the more distinctive Hebrew character and (below, caught last night) early grey.

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The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010

The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.

spring - wherefore art thou?

Despite a flurry of bumblebees around 20th March, including several early bumblebees Bombus pratorum, since then spring seems largely to have stalled.

 

That this year flowering is much later than last year is evident from the fact that in early April 2009, 32 flower species were in flower in the garden, while on the same date this year the total was a mere 13.  And this is not simply due to flowers dying off in the winter.  Also, of those flowering, lungwort (Pulmonaria) was all but finished in early April last year, whereas this year it has only just got going.  However, in the news today is that average flowering times of many flowers are earlier in the last 25 years than they have been over the last 250 years!  The importance of catkins of willows, particularly pussy willow Salix caprea cannot be understated at this time of year.  There are few, if any, other native flowers just now, hence most bumblebees are visiting ornamental species in parks and gardens. 

 

Still, we are seeing the occasional bumblebee, including a first nest-searching queen buff-tailed the other day.  None seen collecting pollen yet.  And there are other signs of spring, with a trickle of black-headed gulls and meadow pipits northwards, and a highlight last night was a pair of frogs and some fresh spawn in the pond.  There is great activity from our dunnock 'pair', while the blackbird eggs must be due to hatch soon, all being well.  A pair of robins were indulged in courtship, for which (robins being robins) the postures involved are indistinguishable from threat displays! For courtship, however, it seems that male threatens female, male retreats, female advances, and so on.

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The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010

The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC 011159.