Exploring Sandwood Bay

A slightly surreal evening in Bettyhill, where I gave a talk about bumblebees - with a particular focus on the Great Yellow Bumblebee, and the role of the Trust and its work.  A very leisurely affair, sitting in comfy chairs, while a jazz band practised next door. Many thanks to Paul Castle of the Highland Council Rangers for organising the room and a 'lightweight' projector screen.  It was unfortunate that the weather conspired to thwart our bumblebee walk the next day, but we repeated the talk to a new audience.  It is still early for the Great Yellow Bumblebee to be out, and the difference in timing of emergence of common species, such as the White-tailed Bumblebee, between the far north and the central belt of Scotland was plain.

 

It was then on to the second site where the Great Yellow Bumblebee has been regularly recorded in Sutherland, the John Muir Trust Sandwood Estate by Kinlochbervie.  My aim was to visit Sandwood Bay itself.  There are no records of Great Yellow Bumblebee from the Bay itself, but I was interested to see which flowers were there, and gauge the impact of grazing by sheep (and the ever present rabbits).  The short summary is that in 10 miles I saw the grand total of two bumblebees (both White-tailed) close to Gorse and Creeping Willow.  Few bumblebees were to be expected, as much of the area is heather moor, and that would be some weeks off flowering.  A very handsome Green Tiger Beetle was patrolling one section of track and near the bay itself, a Small Tortoiseshell was dutifully recorded for the Butterfly Conservation survey this year.  The marram grass of the Bay concealed many violets and a surprising amount of Bird's-foot Trefoil. West facing, the dunes must see regular and considerable disturbance, which may help this plant thrive.  It was interesting to see where a sudden change in vegetation presumably reflected a change in the soil, and Devil's-bit Scabious was also noted, a lovely summer flower popular with bees. With the amount of Bird's-foot Trefoil, there would be plenty of forage for the queen Great Yellow Bumblebees emerging from hibernation, but the impression was that there may not be many suitable flowers available in summer - time will tell.  A beautiful day, with Twite and Wheatears for company, if not many bees, and an American couple who had camped out kindly invited me to share their coffee.  A long walk back and I met up with Don O'Driscoll, Wild Land Ranger for the John Muir Trust, where a female Twite gathering stray sheep's wool had it stolen off her by a male House Sparrow!  Another talk in the evening, thanks to Don's organisation, with a merry few enduring the showers to come out, and a challenge sounded to find Great Yellow Bumblebees at Sandwood this year, Don even boldly offering a reward for a photo!