7th July 2009

The wind was a bit brisker today, but early clouds soon dispersed and we were in for another sunny day on the Isle of Tiree.  With Jamie deposited at Balephetrish, myself and the UK grasslands folk went to Balephuil in the south west.  There is a plant walk described for here that takes in a range of habitats (it is in a recent book of the plants of Coll and Tiree, with John Bowler a co-author).  Some shelter could be found in the dunes from the wind, with abundant Kidney Vetch, and also aggregations of the rare solitary bee, Colletes floralis, or Northern Colletes.  This is a small but exquisite bee, and we saw many here.  I had to cut short my time here, as there was a local crofter nearby who I had chatted with over the phone but had not yet had the chance to meet.  A much-welcome cup of tea was offered and gratefully accepted, and agreed to meet up at the croft (at the eastern end of Tiree) the following afternoon.

 

Back to find Jamie at Balephetrish, where we would all reconvene.  He had seen (and filmed!) a Great Yellow Bumblebee queen soon after arriving, and had then gone on to find a Red-tailed Bumblebee nest.  There were many Moss Carder Bees present, and then we came across another queen Great Yellow Bumblebee, this time collecting pollen from Kidney Vetch, but she was soon away.  Ten minutes later, we had just caught a Red-shanked Carder Bee (so all three of Scotland's Priority bumblebees were here!), and the grasslands gang appeared.  We had to confess that we had just seen a Great Yellow Bumblebee...however, an hour later and after a couple of fleeting sightings, I managed to catch a queen that let us have a close look - the catching itself providing considerable entertainment up a steep gully.  A great way to end the day, as Jamie would leave tonight and the others the next morning.  Having established our rendezvous for the evening, at "Elephants End", with fabulous local food, Jamie and I continued to look for bees a while longer, and added a Red-shanked Carder Bee nest (the entrance hole is small round and dark against the dry thatch of dead grass, low down in the photo).  The icing on the cake was another queen Great Yellow Bumblebee in the garden where I was staying, this one visiting Viper's Bugloss late evening, a terrific bumblebee plant but not one native to Tiree. The photo is blurred, but shows the diagnostic pattern well enough.