Durness

An opportunity to spend a few days in NW Sutherland and see Highland Council Countryside Ranger Donald Mitchell.  The great yellow bumblebee is perhaps more vulnerable here than anywhere else in its now highly restricted range. Donald has seen more than anyone else in recent years but numbers are usually very low. The availability of spring forage for queens had been a concern last year, with bird's-foot trefoil and kidney vetch the main flowers likely to be used early on.  I have received reports of good numbers of queens in Orkney over the past week using the former. Sango Bay has a good amount of both species, particularly around the Tourist Information Centre, so it is hoped they will be visited by newly emerged queens. There are other areas where yellow rattle, red clover, tufted vetch and meadow vetchling will become available - the first two had already started flowering - which will be vital as the queens start their nests and the worker numbers build up during July.  There was also some eyebright, a beautiful but very complicated group of species, one of the reasons why the Sutherland coast is an Important Plant Area. There is also a fair bit of bush vetch flowering, used by great yellows at the nearby Sandwood Estate by Kinlochbervie.  There, I met Don O'Driscoll, the John Muir Trust ranger, where the bush vetch was flowering well and used by common carder bees and garden bumblebee.  We caught a single moss carder bee queen, but Don spotted perhaps another, that seemed to be visiting a nest.

 

I also checked a 5km stretch around the Kyle of Tongue, from Melness to Talmine and Strathan.  One area was superb, with spring and summer forage, perhaps too small to encourage a wandering queen to establish residence, but nearby crofts could hold the key. Other areas had excellent summer forage to come, particularly knapweeds but also tufted vetch and meadow vetchling. However, suitable flower-rich areas were patchy. This area is the largest gap in the current distribution along the north coast. It would be wonderful to discover the great yellow bumblebee here in the summer - a final stepping stone linking the Sutherland and Caithness populations.  There is an old record from Skullomie, near the bay at Coldbackie on the east side of the Kyle.

---

The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010

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

Mull and Iona

A short period on Iona and the Ross of Mull to look for red-shanked carder bee Bombus ruderarius, found on Iona in 2005 by BBCT Director Ben Darvill.  In Scotland, it is currently only known from the nearby islands of Coll and Tiree.  No luck with spring queens, though a 'black, red-tailed' bumblebee at the far north end proved, after careful stalking, to be a red-tailed bumblebee Bombus lapidarius.  New for Iona perhaps, but not the main target! In summer, there is a better chance to find workers and males, if one or more queens establish nests.  There were at least two queens of the moss carder bee Bombus muscorum, which was great. There were a few corncrakes calling, and if there are flower-rich grasslands managed for these, then this will also support the bees.  I also met up with the National Trust for Scotland volunteers, but the weather turned breezy and showery.  However, we did find a caterpillar of the belted beauty moth, and in a brief period of sunshine a narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth sped by.

 

The next day, I visited a very productive area of the Ross of Mull, where there were a couple more moss carder bee queens, a first dark green fritillary of the year, more belted beauty caterpillars, a couple of solitary bee species, an approachable golden-ringed dragonfly and another narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth, which was nectaring at bird's-foot trefoil a few inches from my boot.  Then, off to the north and Sutherland.

---

The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010

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