31st July 2009

This was intended to be a computer day, but with warm sunshine and virtually no wind, I felt obliged to check a couple of places I had passed by yesterday evening.  I met Kenny, a local farmer, fixing a fence that the cattle had been rubbing themselves up against – a thing they do.

 

I was a couple of miles inland from Dunnet Bay, where there have been occasional great Yellow Bumblebee sightings.  I was also near Barrock, where Mary Legg had seen not just one, but two queens in the garden this spring.  Along the roadside, there were plenty of useful flowers, and several bees, but temptation got the better of me, and I looked into a field with a fair bit of Marsh Thistle – a more acceptable species that the frequently problematic Spear and Creeping Thistles.  Within half-an-hour I had recorded seven bumblebee species, a terrific number for one Caithness field.  The three Buff-tailed Bumblebees (including one new queen) reinforced the view that this species is rapidly establishing itself in the far north-east corner of Scotland.  However, Great Yellow Bumblebees were the stars, with five (!) workers, all visiting either Marsh Thistle or Spear Thistle.  Also present was a worker Moss Carder Bee (another UK BAP species) and a Broken-belted Bumblebee – the subject of a Species Recovery programme in England, but with a stronghold in the Scottish Highlands.  I reported my success to Kenny, still hard at work fencing.  He was glad to take a break and pointed out another bumblebee on a Spear Thistle.  I couldn’t believe it, another Great Yellow Bumblebee, and this one was clearly a male, with long antennae and a long abdomen.  Clear signs of a successful nest – so let’s hope it will also produce many daughter queens.

 

After some lunch at the Park Hotel in Thurso, where I was kindly allowed to hook up to their WiFi connection and complete my computer duties, it was off to Sutherland and the Bettyhill Gala.  I was leading a walk with Paul Castle at Farr Glebe in the morning, before the main festivities kicked off, and Paul had now reported up to four Great Yellow Bumblebee workers there.  Sounded very promising – if the weather would hold!  An evening stroll with a bite to eat quickly yielded a worker Great Yellow Bumblebee on Greater Knapweed.  Now it was all down to the weather!