Bumblebee-bagging in the Cairngorms
This spring and summer, we’re asking the outdoor community to help us better understand how the rare Blaeberry bumblebee is faring in the Cairngorms National Park. Could you be the first to bag-a-bumblebee in these hills?
The Blaeberry bumblebee (Bombus monticola), also known as the Bilberry or Mountain bumblebee, is a small but bright and distinctive bumblebee – and one that hillwalkers, climbers and mountaineers may come across when they are ‘oot and aboot’.
This upland-specialist bumblebee is a key pollinator in the hills, working hard to keep our moorlands flowering and blaeberry blooming in what can be quite an inhospitable landscape.
Without pollination, there wouldn’t be berries or seeds for the birds and small mammals, and we wouldn’t have the extraordinary sight of purple-flowering heather splashed over our moorlands in late summer. Our environment would be less healthy, less colourful and less diverse.
However, the Blaeberry bumblebee is under threat. It’s already been designated as a conservation-priority species by the Scottish Government because of the challenges that climate change poses to this cold-adapted, mountain-dwelling species, which is most at home on moorland over 300m. The Cairngorm National Park could be one of the few strongholds for the Blaeberry bumblebee left in the UK, and we are in an important position to support its conservation.
To best protect and conserve these precious pollinators we need to understand exactly where they are found and how they are doing in these areas. Recording your bumblebee sightings is a practical way to contribute to knowledge and conservation in the hills – as mountaineers and walkers, we can collect valuable information from areas that are inaccessible to many people.
What does a Blaeberry bumblebee look like?
Blaeberry bumblebees are on the small side – typically around the size of a thumbnail – but their distinctive appearance makes them hard to miss or mistake.
They have fiery orange-red hairs covering more than half of their lower body, a soft yellow collar, and a faint band of yellow behind their wings, all against a background of black.
It’s the extent of the bright orange-red tail that helps the Blaeberry bumblebee stand out from similar bumblebees, (none of which have more than half of the abdomen covered in red hairs).
When and where should I look for Blaeberry bumblebees?
Blaeberry bumblebees are generally found in upland areas, at or over 300m above sea level. They can pop up in unexpected places, including gardens, agricultural fields and road verges close to hills or moorland. Their favourite flowers include blaeberry, heather, white clover, thistles and ragwort.
These bumblebees are most active between May and July but could be spotted as early as March or late as September, depending on the year and the weather
Keep an eye out anywhere that seems like suitable habitat for them. We would love to see Blaeberry bumblebee records coming in from all over, but we are particularly keen to hear about sightings in new areas where they haven’t been recorded before, especially in the Cairngorms National Park. Our Skills for Bees: Scotland project is working with partners in the national park to increase and improve long-term bumblebee recording and to conserve priority species.
To help with this, we’ve created a map of the top peaks across the Cairngorms where we have identified the right habitat present for Blaeberry bumblebees, but there are no publicly-available records at all. If you’re heading to these peaks over the summer, could you be the first to bag a bumblebee in these hills?
If you have any questions about bumblebees or would like help identifying a bumblebee from a photo so that you can add your sighting to iRecord, please contact enquiries@bumblebeeconservation.org.
OK, I’ve seen a Blaeberry bumblebee. Now what do I do?
Rejoice! You are one of the lucky ones! Now make your sighting count…
If you see a Blaeberry bumblebee, take a photo and make a note of the date and location. Don’t worry if your photo isn’t to a professional standard! Blaeberry bumblebees are such a distinctive species, it’s often possible to confirm their identity even from slightly out-of-focus photos.
We recommend using iRecord to log your sightings, which is simple to use and is available through their website or in a handy app. Wildlife sightings submitted to iRecord are checked and verified by a local expert, before feeding into a publicly available national database. This means your sightings can be accessed and used by anyone, including conservation organisations, planning authorities, students and researchers. The four key pieces of information needed are:
- What you saw (species, with a photo if possible)
- When you saw it (date)
- Where you saw it (6-figure grid reference)
- Who saw it (your name)
If you use the iRecord app, most of these details will be added automatically for you, using built-in GPS, or you can search using the map. You just need to press the big green ‘+’ symbol on the menu bar at the bottom of the screen and type in “Bombus monticola”.
When using iRecord, some details are compulsory, but others aren’t. You don’t need to worry about ‘life stage’ or ‘sex’. In the ‘comment’ section, you can add further details if you’d like to, such as what type of flower the bumblebee was seen on, or anything else you find interesting. You’ll need to make an account to use the app but you can use the website without an account by clicking here.
An alternative simple way of making your sighting count is to contact your local records centre which keeps a database with all the wildlife sightings in their constituency. They may also be able to help with identification. In the Cairngorms National Park, this would be the North East Scotland Biological Records Centre. You can contact them or submit records through their website, or email them directly.
