11th August 2009

Hot news from Caithness!  Teresa, one of Phyllida’s volunteers, has seen SIX Great Yellow Bumblebees on the outskirts of Thurso, and by one of the quarries!

 

Rather a damp day, but had some visits in Kirkwall, to Scottish Natural Heritage to collect the BBCT events materials, and to Richard Shearer, the Orkney seed merchant, with whom I had a very valuable discussion.  I saw the big green hopper where all the seed mixes are made up – it gets to be a very busy place in April and May with farmers and contractors waiting for the right time to sow.  Richard has played a key role in the increase in the number of ‘Birds & Bees’ crops in Orkney, now totalling close to, if not more than, 100 hectares.  We hope to see the same increase in Caithness!

 

I dropped off some bumblebee information to the brother of someone I had met the day before; I was by coincidence parked next to a BBCT member’s car!  We were chatting and I found they were visiting family on the island.  After photographing some of the Sainfoin coming through in the BBF crops, I made a couple of other calls and stopped off at the RSPB office in Stromness.  Then off to Orphir, where Richard Shearer had said there were some fields with a strong Red Clover crop.  The fields were obvious, the wet weather just now providing a slight reprieve for the bees, before the crop is baled as silage.  Despite light rain, there was a great deal of bumblebee activity, with many Garden Bumblebees, a number of fresh Moss Carder Bees and at least ten Great Yellow Bumblebees, foraging for both pollen and nectar.  One seen flying away was perhaps a new queen but possibly a very large worker.  However, some heavier rain set in so it was back to base to prepare for departure tomorrow.

 

I have also just been told that Cambridge has a “Swarm Co-ordinator” – for honey bees, of course.