Kirk Mason joined the Trust as a volunteer in November 2020, after attending our session at the University of Derby online volunteers fair, where he is currently studying, in the October. Kirk explains why he wanted to help and how he is currently doing this . . .

As an aspiring entomologist, it’s the time of the year where I always get itchy feet. Soon, it will be time to find bumblebees and other amazing insects – Spring is drawing close! Though each year, chance encounters with some of these amazing animals feels increasingly rarer.

Through my Zoology degree, it became apparent that pollinators such as bumblebees are incredibly important to the wider landscape. The service they provide, supports life from the ground up, by helping many flowering plants reproduce. These plants provide food for lots of animals such as insects, birds and mammals – including us! When I learned that more than a third of bumblebee species have declined by 70% in Britain between 1900 and 1980, I was shocked. Shocked that creatures, so charismatic, industrious and important could cease to exist in the future because of our activities – not through ill intentions, but simply not knowing.

This led me to read into how we can reverse these declines and prevent bumblebee extinctions. It quickly became apparent that the Bumblebee Conservation Trust are leading the fight to conserve bumblebees in Britain. How? Through conservation projects, education, helping land managers, research and engaging with people. The Trust also trains members of the public to contribute to citizen science projects (BeeWalk), which are incredibly important in developing a greater understanding of the bigger picture in Britain. After learning this is what the Trust does, I thought “I want to be a part of that!”

So, how am I contributing? For now, I’m helping with public engagement online, by contributing to the Trust’s social media through writing and photography. When I started volunteering with the Trust, I immediately felt at home due to the community spirit amongst the staff and volunteers. The positive and supportive mentality of everyone involved makes for an excellent collaborative environment, where everybody shares a common goal – to conserve our bumblebees.

Once restrictions lift, I hope to help with face-to-face engagement and physical activities such as habitat management. Though there are many ways that we can help, some of which I hope to try! There are green-fingered activities such as bulb planting, growing seeds and cuttings. Surveying through walking outdoors, looking for bumblebees and documenting results is a crucial way of contributing to our scientific understanding of bumblebees. Talks, guided walks and fundraising are great ways of talking about bumblebees with people and helping at the same time. There are admin duties, preparing event resources and even data handling opportunities. Becoming a member of the Trust really helps and no matter your skill set, there are many ways to contribute in the fight to conserve British bumblebees!

See how you can get involved by visiting out volunteering page here. 

13 November 2020

Ten years ago On the Verge founder, Leigh Biagi, was in her kitchen making packed lunches, when she heard Professor Dave Goulson, founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, talking on the radio about declining bee numbers. On the Verge is a Stirling based, voluntary, community project established in 2010. This is her story…

I had just started studying for a degree in Environmental Studies with The Open University and was feeling a bit desperate about the state of the planet, so when I heard Dave say that several species of bumblebee had already gone extinct, and others were on the verge of extinction it really resonated with me. I thought ‘On the Verge’ would make a great name for a bee project and somebody should really set one up. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and by the end of the day, I had decided to do just that.

I explained my idea to a friend who worked in the environmental sector; she helped to gather together a group of like-minded people and ‘On the Verge’ was born!

Dave Goulson had explained in his radio interview that pollinators were beginning to gravitate towards towns and cities, as urban environments offered better food sources thanks to the British love of gardening. We decided that if bees were clever enough to adapt, then we should be clever enough to help them by providing as many areas of native wildflowers as possible.

So, we initially decided to approach schools and community councils to achieve a good geographic spread of wildflower sites throughout the city.

I was worried that nobody would be interested in the early stages, but it soon became clear that plenty of people were keen to get involved, particularly schools, and then I worried too many people would be interested and we wouldn’t be able to cope and there was certainly plenty for us to do in the first year.

The first issue that needed solving was funding. We approached ten local businesses who each donated £100 to get the project off the ground which was wonderful.

The next question to tackle was what the best seed mix to sow was. We worked closely with Scottish wildflower seed producer Scotia Seeds and a special ‘On The Verge’ wildflower mix was developed, comprising four annual species and eighteen perennial species, all native to the UK.

The final hurdle was finding someone to prepare the sites. Luckily, somebody directed us towards Stirling’s Criminal Justice Service, and they agreed to prepare the On the Verge sites for sowing.

I then decided to approach Stirling council to ask them to sow some wildflowers as well. I just wanted them to sow a couple of small, high-profile areas in support of the project. I was amazed when they agreed to establish 25 sites throughout Stirling in the first year, totalling 1,440 square metres.

That was ten years ago now, and since then we have sown a total of 10,000 square metres of native wildflowers in partnership with over 90 local organisations including 26 schools,7 nurseries, 2 care homes, 3 churches and 4 scout/guide troupes.

We are an entirely voluntary organisation and we work in three key areas; providing free seed, practical support and advice to community groups to help them sow areas of wildflowers; attending community events and giving talks to promote the work; and collating data for research projects with students from Stirling University.

We also work with community groups to improve existing wildflower meadows using seed which a few of us collect locally, and have plans to introduce ‘Bee Beds’, using nectar-rich, perennial planting as a neater alternative to wildflower patches.

Project highlights include; a Nature of Scotland award from the RSPB in the species champion section in 2011; jointly  hosting the 2015 Inspiring Meadows conference with Stirling Council, Buglife and Inner Forth Landscape Initiative; being chosen as one of the projects highlighted by Chris Packham in his 2018 UK Bioblitz campaign; and in 2020 featuring as a case study in the Wildlife Trusts Reversing the decline of Insects.

We are also branching out; in 2019 we were joined by our sister group On the Verge Cambridge and we are currently working to help set up an ‘On the Verge Perth’.

2020 has brought about some changes for On the Verge. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we weren’t able to sow with any of the schools as planned, which was a pity, but it did give more time for thinking and planning. This year grass-cutting in Stirling was delayed until June and walking around the city’s greenspaces this spring I saw wildflowers that I’ve never here seen before, because they are usually cut down before they have a chance to flower. It occurred to me that it was a bit ironic for ‘On the Verge’ to be sowing new areas of wildflowers at the same time as the council was mowing out the existing wildflowers in the grassland.

I decided to launch an online petition asking Stirling council to take a more ecological approach to manging local grassland in order to help local insect populations, particularly pollinators.

One of the most important things the petition asked the council to do was to adopt a cut and collect method of grass management. Currently when grassland is mowed the clippings are left in situ to rot down. This releases nitrogen which fertilises the grass and so it grows back vigorously and out competes the wildflowers. If the clippings are regularly lifted off-site, then over a few seasons the grass weakens allowing the wildflowers to flourish resulting in less grass, more flowers, and healthier pollinators, all because of one small change.

The petition received over 1,500 signatures and was presented at a council meeting on the 24th September where council members agreed to proceed with the recommendations made which was a fantastic response.

We have now begun to work with groups from all over the country, helping them to lobby their own local authorities for change, including groups from Cambridge, Worcester, and Perth. We are very keen to hear from more people who might be interested in improving their local areas in this way. The hope is that by working together we can persuade many other local authorities to follow Stirling council’s lead and by working collectively, we can do a great deal to protect the UK’s natural environment.

On the Verge can be contacted at enquiries@ontheverge.co.uk / Facebook  / Website

Twitter @OTVStirling

This delightful blog was written by Pieter Haringsma who was inspired to search for this bumblebee after reading our Bumblebees of the World blog on Bombus brodmannicus by Denis Michez last year. Pieter often provides the Trust with beautiful, captivating images of bumblebees and is definitely and expert in this field!

As a Dutch bumblebee fan, I read the Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s blog post about Bombus brodmannicus last year and fell instantly in love with this bumblebee. After a while, I thought it would be a great goal for the summer holiday finding this bumblebee living high in the alps.

I wrote to Dennis Michez, the author of the blog post and he kindly delivered me an article with GPS co-ordinates of earlier observations of brodmannicus. Negotiation with my wife took five minutes and a new bumblebee goal was born!

I plotted the GPS co-ordinates where brodmannicus was found in 2012 on a paper map of the southern French Alps. Later, I contacted Prof. Pierre Rasmont from the University of Mons and he gave me several extra locations and tips (bee professors seem a kind human sub-species). The specialised bumblebee forages solely on Cerinthe minor and Cerinthe Glabra, flies at 1,000-2,000 metres and has the mad behaviour of being active early in the morning (before 07.00 AM) and late in the evening. That was not a good forecast of a slow holiday!

We left on 16 July and after a five day break at the bee walhalla Doucier in the French Jura, we travelled to the French Alps, Barcelonette (1150 asl), where we stayed with our small caravan on the nice campsite le Tampico.

From here, we did several searches for Cerinthe on Col d’Allos and Col de la Cayolle slowly driving up by car and doing multiple small walks to look for the plant.  On Col d’Allos we found a great patch (“I see a patch” was the yell of the holiday) of Cerinthe just below the top and also one just over the top, but almost every plant had finished flowering completely.

As brodmannicus was also able to forage on several other plants which I’d forgotten, I decided to focus on a large patch of Cerinthe just under the top above a large parking place which was easy to re-find and access.

At a 100×50 metres area intersected by multiple sheep paths there were multiple Cerinthe plants. I went back in the evening and thought to have found brodmannicus there. Next morning, I went up by car at 05.30am and engaged a beautiful sunrise. Several bees were foraging after seven o’clock, and I found a nest site where males were very actively nest patrolling during the morning.

Dreaming about the first brodmannicus nest ever found, I shot and shot until a dark coloured bee entered the nest making me think; What are you doing in my brodmannicus nest… After mailing a British bee professor from Col d’Allos, the answer came when I’d returned to the caravan. No brodmannicus!! Perhaps Bombus Pyreneus.

I was not very disappointed as we still had quite a lot of vacation time left and I’d made many good shots at the nest site. To observe the behaviour of the males was very fascinating.  The males had different colour patterns and were very aggressive against each other. One male entered the nest site and was kicked out immediately, dying at the nest entrance were he was grabbed by a predating insect.

After a week, we left Barcelonette for the Queyras and found a campsite in the Ristolas valley at 1650 asl. Several days later, we did a walk above Abriès, where a 1.5km footpath covered with flowers ended at the ruins of some houses at a steep southern faced slope. There, we found the patch of all patches, Cerinthe just starting to flower.

Adrenalin filled my circulation as we went back the same evening and I found one brodmannicus worker sleeping in a Cerinthe plant hanging upside down in the flowers. No other brodmannicus seen and I only shot several photo’s of this bumblebee which awoke and started foraging. I lost her after a few minutes…

Next evening I returned to the spot, as the morning was too cold and windy. The same bumblebee was sleeping in exactly the same flowers as the evening before. No other bumblebees seen and I shot multiple photos of this sole bee and left it sleeping.

The next morning at dawn, it was only 6 degrees, I went back and was at the spot at 07.30am gambling that the bees would fly later because of the low temperatures. The sleeping bee had dropped off the plant and was for dead lying on the floor under the flowers where it hung the evening before. I had no sugar with me, so warmed the bumblebee in my hand where the resurrection took place and after extensive grooming and shivering, the brodmannicus took off from my hand which gave an intense feeling of connection with this beautiful, rare species.

The next two hours, I spent patrolling the plot continuously, walking from one inflorescence to another to check for brodmannicus activity. I did see roughly five other bees, so this is what rare really means: never abundant. It was a steep slope with scattered plants so the fast bees very easy left my sight all of the time. After several more shots, my macro lens had an auto focus problem, which wasn’t the best moment for it, but I had already won the first bumblebee price so I took it and looked! The bee activity stopped at around 11am.

Altogether, it was a great experience to hunt for a specific bumblebee in the summer holiday. It brought us to where I’d never gone without this goal. The Queyras, is a pesticide free area with an extreme abundance of flowers and bees.

It is weird that it does not belong to the Outer Hebrides!

By Pieter Haringsma, Delft, the Netherlands

Our Science Manager Dr Richard Comont, tells us how to identify and record that bee you’ve spotted.

We’ve all heard that bees are struggling. But how do we actually know this? And how are all the individual bee species doing? The answer may be closer than you think . . .

With over 250 species in the UK, including 24 species of bumblebee, the vast majority of our knowledge of wild bee populations in the UK (and pretty much all other wildlife) comes from amateur naturalists. The names have changed over time – from the Victorian ‘gentleman scientists’ (although there were many famous females too) to ‘biological recorders’ to the current favourite term, ‘citizen scientists’. But the activity has remained the same over the centuries: volunteers note the species they see around them, and make a record of their sightings with four critical pieces of information:

• What (is it)?
• Where (did you find it)?
• When (did you see it)?
• Who (saw it?) (You!)

For at least the past half century, these critical wildlife records have been collected centrally by national recording schemes and societies – one for almost anything you can think of is www.brc.ac.uk/recording-schemes. These schemes and societies and the national Biological Records Centre work with recorders across the UK to check the data, make sure that species haven’t been misidentified, and carry out mapping and analysis work (as well as much more besides). They act as the custodians for our centuries-long national wildlife story, seen through the eyes of generations of people who were aware of their surrounding environment, and recorded what they saw on a day to day basis.

It’s easy to add your own stitch to this great tapestry of wildlife recording. At the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, we recommend three ways to record that bee: ad-hoc (one-off) recording, FIT Counts and BeeWalk.

Ad-hoc recording

Ad-hoc recording is the simplest. Firstly, find a bee. Secondly, identify it to species. Thirdly, submit the record. Fourthly, relax in the knowledge of a job well done.

Finding the bee is the easy bit! Visit a patch of flowers, or plant some yourself. You can visit our Bee kind tool to help, and they’ll come to you. To identify it, you’ll find that practice makes perfect. Assuming it’s a bumblebee, sit with a book – this is a good one on bumblebees; ‘Bumblebees – an introduction‘, visit our Bee ID pages or an app such as the Bee ID app and study the bees as they come and go, or take pictures and run them past an expert for checking – iSpot or the UK Bees, Wasps and Ants Facebook group are great for this. You can also share your sighting with us on social media. We’re always pleased to see pictures or videos of bumblebees in your gardens or elsewhere and can help identify which species you’ve found – check out our tips for taking photos for identification. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Once you have an ID, you’re ready to record. At the Trust we recommend using the iRecord system – it’s quick and simple to use, available as a website or an app, and the data is instantly available to any relevant wildlife organisation. In particular, we work with the national experts at the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society (BWARS) to make sure as many records as possible make it from iRecord into the national dataset, where they can be used for mapping and analysis. Experts from BWARS monitor records on iRecord and it won’t take long for your records to be picked up. There are several other apps and websites, but none that check data as thoroughly (so there’s more chance of it being unreliable) or share their data as widely (so it can’t and won’t be used for analysis of bee populations, for example).

Structured surveys

The two other surveys supported by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust are FIT Counts and BeeWalk and are more structured. This makes them slightly more complex to carry out, but means that analysis of the data can be more detailed (because we know a lot more about how the data was collected), so they can be more informative than ad-hoc records alone.

Flower-Insect Timed Counts (FIT Counts) are part of the National Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS), which is a partnership of research organisations and environmental charities, including the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.  They’re designed to be a basic, straightforward survey for anyone to do when they have a few spare minutes, or as an activity with a school group or on a bioblitz.  A FIT count basically involves ten minutes of sitting by a small patch of flowers and recording what visits those flowers, but at a very broad group level – bumblebee, butterfly, beetle, etc (for full details visit the PoMS site).  The aim is to help us all get a better handle on how the different pollinator groups are doing relative to each other, which is important as we have a lot more data on some (e.g. butterflies) than we do on others (e.g. beetles).

BeeWalk is the Trust’s own standardised bumblebee-monitoring project*. Essentially, volunteer BeeWalkers walk a fixed route (a transect) at least once a month from March to October, counting how many bumblebees of each species they encounter. From this we can get an up-to-date idea of how bumblebees are doing across the UK, and we publish this analysis yearly as the BeeWalk Annual Report. Visit our publications page to read our latest reports.

In Conclusion…

A biological record is a window on the world of wildlife as it is at the time. Collected together, they tell us stories about the world as it is now, and of how it used to be.  They inform us of the issues, point the way to solutions, and confer a kind of immortality on the recorders who have their names preserved alongside their data.

Please do join the army of citizen scientists across the country.  You don’t need to be an expert, or spend all your spare time peering down a microscope, or to have acres of land managed for wildlife: all you need is an eye for what’s around you and the motivation to help us all better understand our bumblebees, and indeed all our other species, are doing.

by Zeus Mateos Fierro

The full bloom of cherry blossoms is a beautiful and yet ephemeral event that lasts about three weeks (typically from mid-April to early May). Numerous blossoms are available to pollinators, but resources are scarce for them in orchards after the blossom period. Cherry orchards have evolved in the last decades from the traditional open orchards with large trees to modern protected orchards with a smaller but greater number of trees.

However, pollinators are still needed to pollinate cherry blossoms and underpin yields, particularly since most of the varieties are self-incompatible and cross-pollination is required. Consequently, growers are highly reliant on managed pollinators. For the last three years, I have been researching pollination and pest regulation in commercial sweet cherry orchards in the West Midlands for my PhD at the University of Worcester. I have investigated the enhancement of wild pollinating insects, including bees, hoverflies, and butterflies through wildflowers.

Newly created wildflower habitats, with native perennial plant species, were established in the alleyways between rows of cherry trees to increase sustainable and resilient pollination. This is the first time that such an approach has been investigated under protective cropping, and could involve important benefits for the sweet cherry industry. A key aim of my project was to investigate what pollinators visited cherry blossoms and how effective they were delivering pollination services. I also investigated what pollinating insects used the wildflowers after the blossom period until late September. The study was funded by the University of Worcester, Waitrose & Partners, and Berry Gardens, in partnership with the University of Reading and NIAB EMR.

As with many fruit crops, cherries are typically pollinated by the western honeybee (Apis mellifera), but increasingly buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) have been used. Honeybee hives are hired and bumblebee nest boxes are bought, so that there are enough pollinators to support production. However, wild pollinators might be more efficient at pollinating cherry blossoms compared to managed pollinators. During our transect surveys in cherry orchards across the three-year study, we recorded a total of 19,738 pollinating insects, of which14,724 were recorded during the blossom period and 5,014 after. Managed pollinators were the most abundant with 6,502 honeybees, and 5,296 buff-tailed bumblebees recorded. Hoverflies were the most abundant wild pollinator guild, which accounted for 4,760 individuals, followed by 1,879 bumblebees, 1069 solitary bees, and 232 butterflies.

In total, 104 different pollinator species were recorded! This included one species of honeybee, ten bumblebee species, 33 species of solitary bee, 48 species of hoverfly, and 12 butterfly species. These figures show how reliant growers are on managed pollinators. However, despite the greater abundance of these, wild bumblebees (queens during the cherry blossom period) and solitary bees were more effective pollinating cherry blossoms, since they frequently contacted cherry stigmas and flew often between rows, enhancing cross-pollination.

Throughout my study, I found that wildflower strips increased the abundance and richness of pollinating insects, and therefore pollinator diversity, compared to unsown conventional alleyways. This led to an increase in fruit set. Although it takes time for benefits for growers to materialize, our approach has created a range of possibilities for growers to produce sweet cherries more sustainably. For example, wildflower habitats also provide resources to other beneficial insects (e.g. natural enemies), which can deliver pest regulation services throughout the growing season. The inclusion of wildflowers in the orchards also means the orchards can support pollinators throughout the year and not just during the cherry blossom period. The wildflower habitats are also an important tool for conservation, given that many pollinator species continue to decline.