The North East Bee Hunt has been great for helping me recognise bumblebees in the garden. You don’t need to know much to be able to distinguish the common bumblebees. I’ve gone from “they’re all just bees” to being able to recognise the ones that come to visit the garden.
Category: Bombus terrestris (Buff-tailed bumblebee)
Garden lockdown
It was cold yesterday. Well, cold-ish. Too cold for sitting in the garden watching the world not going by. You had to be moving.
A bit warmer today, but not much. So I kept moving. Last night Neil from Platinum Physiotherapy presented a webinar event on keeping fit mentally and physically during the current strange times. I’d planned on not doing anything much until it had all gone away, but things are looking like they could stretch out for weeks, or months, so being inactive is not a wise option.
I cleared the patio a bit. Might get the mat out. Watch a bit of pilates. Always liked pilates. I should really do more.
And I’m keeping my Garmin on all the time now. Normally I don’t get excited about step counts, sleep hours, calories burned etc, but if there was ever a time for Moving when your garmin says Move!, then this is probably it. I’m not quite sure how it works out when I should move, after how much inactivity, and how much I have to move before it thinks I’ve moved enough, and won’t pester me for a while. But it’s a good kick up the backside. Little and often. I’ll give that mantra a try.
I tried moving round the garden. I tried running round the garden. This works, after a fashion, but it’s a bit steep and windy, so I’m thinking more “obstacle course” perhaps. Rather than ignore the climbs, I can include some steps and treat them as part of a fitness circuit. My ‘lap’ of the garden works out around 45 metres. I can work with that.
When I wasn’t working where I could do a lunge or two, or perhaps even a calf-raise – I like calf-raises – I chased a bee and looked at a plant.
The geek in me loved entering my first irecord for the North East Bee Hunt, so when I saw a rather enormous bumblebee bimbling across the garden I immediately gave chase.
I’m pretty sure it was a buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), and maybe a queen. I’m still pretty clueless about bees but they’re fascinating creatures. This big bee was not looking for flowers, but instead rummaged around amongst the buttercups and cleavers as if looking for a nest site. Nest? Do bees have nests? Hive maybe.
The herb patch is a bit of a wasteland. I keep thinking about growing from seed, I try it, then remember that I have neither the patience nor interest to faff around with seeds. So it’s plug plants usually. Some with more success than others. Too cold for basil sadly, and last year’s tarragon didn’t amount to much.
But a lovage plant that we bought locally years ago absolutely loves it. Lovage is the sort of plant I like. I like Plants with Attitude, and it never fails to fascinate me the way some plants die down to invisibility over the winter, then, when the spring sunshine comes along, they go absolutely bonkers.
The North East Bee Hunt
The Natural History Society of Northumbria are currently promoting The North East Bee Hunt. I like bees, but I don’t know much about them. I especially don’t know anything about identifying them, so I like it when the introduction to the hunt includes the very unthreatening come-on-in of:
Urban or rural, beginner or expert, naturalist or nature lover, everyone can help to increase our knowledge and awareness of bees in the North East.
https://www.nhsn.ncl.ac.uk/activities/the-north-east-bee-hunt/
Well that doesn’t sound scary so I signed up, and also set myself up an account on irecord, the website where records and sightings are submitted and checked.
In these Covid-19 locked-down times, there are worse places to be than in your garden squinting at bees through your camera then trying to work out what they are. The Natural History Society provide an identification guide of the five key species that they’re interesting, although I also found the BTO guide useful too, especially as I found I had a Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) in my hunt.
It’s a good feeling submitting a record. It’s an even better feeling when your ‘likely’ identification is approved with a big green tick.
I saw two species yesterday, and I think I’d probably recognise them again in an identity parade. Not the individuals, obviously, but the species I think I’d manage.
There were about half a dozen or so bumblebees buzzing around on the willow flowers, about 4 or 5 metres above my head. Zooming in on the photos I had tree bumblebees and buff-tailed bumblebees.
I thought they were all tree bumblebees at first, but after submitting the record it was pointed out to me that I also had buff-tailed bumblebees.
