With the start of October comes slightly more traditional weather conditions we've so far avoided, and for a lame excuse to stay dry I've been in the office typing up and submitting survey data for the Bumblebee Conservation Trusts' BeeWalk,. As a citizen science based national survey the idea is to get folk setting up transects of around a mile in length and walking them every month, recording the bumblebee species seen and the flowers they're feeding on. Having a bit of a 'thing' for bumblebees I decided to get a transect up at running on the Gruinart reserve, and so far we've had some pretty good records with a total of 8 species (there are 25 species in UK) being found, with 2 of these being considered reasonably uncommon.
I am cheating slightly here as 2 of the 8 were technically off the transect, just don't tell anyone...
Anyway here's a collection of photos taken in July when our flower meadows were in full bloom.
A male Bombus pratorum or Early bumblebee - despite the name and the fact they're supposedly 'rarely seen after July' our northern location means we were seeing these well into August. The males of bumblebee species can either look identical to the females, or in this case, strikingly different. The yellow face and lack of pollen baskets is the giveaway here, and once these boys leave the nest, they're not allowed back in - often seen during bad weather looking miserable clinging to the underside of vegetation.
At the same time as we found the male, we found a Queen Early bumblebee - the worker bees are very small by bumblebee standards; the size of this one suggests she's a virgin queen, newly emerged from the nest, and will bulk up on pollen and nectar after mating with one of the males in order to survive the long hibernation into spring.
Bombus hortorum, or the garden bumblebee has a very distinct long face, and a very fat belly from feeding! Garden bumblebees can either be rather small, or a slightly more substantial size, and varies with location. In this case it's safe to say we get the large ones.
A male Bombus bohemicus Gypsy bumblebee - the lifecycle of gypsy bumblebees are pretty fascinating and involve nest invasions, multiple queen murders and worker theft. They're also uncommonly recorded due to their similarities to other species. This species preys on the above Garden bumblebee
Bombus lapidarius or Red-tailed bumblebee was quite a surprise as their range has not included Islay before.
The most commonly seen Bombus lucorum or white-tailed bumblebee. It's been recently found there are 3 subspecies of this bee, which all helpfully look identical.
And finally Bombus muscorum or Moss carder bee is one of our slightly rarer species, and is identified by it's orange-yellow colour and total lack of black hairs on the thorax and abdomen. They're basically very pretty.