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Buzzword

Bee the revolution and save the sound of summer

bumblebeeconservation.org

Members’ newsletter - March 2017 - Issue 33

Saving the sound of summer

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Bee the revolution

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Get in touchPost Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Beta Centre, Stirling University Innovation Park, Stirling FK9 4NF

Phone 01786 594 130

Email enquiries@bumblebeeconservation.org volunteering@bumblebeeconservation.org membership@bumblebeeconservation.org media@bumblebeeconservation.org

Cover pictureVivian Russell: Red-tailed

cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus rupestris)

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Contents4. Trees for bees

8. Companion planting . . .

16. Solitary bees

““Photo: Thalia Brown,

Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Those of us besotted by bumblebees, know how vital they are. They have an intrinsic value as well as the much stated economic value, (estimated at £691 million per year to the UK economy). Our members, volunteers and staff are united around the shared purpose of ensuring their existence and conservation.

But we need more people to understand, enjoy and cherish our bumblebees, that’s why at the AGM in December I urged everyone in the room to ‘Bee the Revolution’.

Together we can ensure our bumblebees flourish. Reversing the trend in their declines, needs a concerted effort by all of us who are passionate about them.

Please help by asking friends and family to join the Trust. We can do even MORE to help bumblebees with more supporters. Spread the word, ‘bee the revolution’ and together, we can ‘save the sound of summer’.

Thank you. Gill Perkins, CEO

You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what

kind of difference you want to make.

Jane Goodall

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The bumble blogAviva Community Fund success!!November and December witnessed a massive flurry of activity on social media, emails and phone calls to rally friends, families, volunteers and even strangers to support our Pollinating the Peak project.Well, 13,505 votes later after submitting the final parts of the application - we’ve done it! In early January, the Aviva Community Fund wrote to us, saying: “We’re delighted to share with you that your project Pollinating the Peak has been chosen as a winner in the Aviva Community Fund and have been awarded £25,000. Our judges scored your entry highly against some very strong competition”. So, what a summer we have planned for the people of Derbyshire in 2017. Sixteen weeks of local community days, bee safaris and science events for children and families. This will be a great summer for all! It would not have been possible without your support, so we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone.Let’s see if we can all make the Peak District a much friendlier place for our ‘red and lemon bottomed’ friends; the Bilberry bumblebee (Bombus monticola).

Saving the sound of summer!

If you would like to see your photo featured in Buzzword, please email: media@bumblebeeconservation.org

Thank you to the following:

Beverley McCallion, Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)

Your photo gallery

Michael Waldher, possibly a Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Tyrone Williams for this Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)

Making a Buzz for the Coast This project is exciting and ambitious, spanning the Kent and

East Sussex coast, focusing on restoring and creating habitat for

Kent’s wild bees, especially the Shrill carder bee (Bombus sylvarum).

The Trust is delighted to be leading the project, in partnership with Kent Wildlife Trust, Kent County Council, Natural England and the RSPB.

The project is currently in its development stage and we have been working with our partners preparing the Stage 2 application to the Heritage Lottery Fund during the past few months.

We will be informed in June if the application has been successful and we will provide an update in our July edition of Buzzword - fingers crossed!

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When planting your garden with colourful flowers to attract our buzzing bumblebees, it’s easy to forget about the sometimes, less glamorous trees and shrubs. However, they can provide a vital source of sustenance for bumblebees at times where access to other food sources might be scarce, and can offer the perfect nesting site opportunities. An abandoned mammal hole at the base of a shrub, or the vacant bird box up in the tree can be oh so appealing to a queen bumblebee on the hunt.

Early spring is a great time to begin planting your trees and shrubs to help look after our precious pollinators throughout the year (and in subsequent years), ensuring all periods within the bumblebee life cycle are catered for. This list is by no means exhaustive, but will hopefully provide an idea or two.

By Laura Shakespeare, Fundraising Officer

Spring Warming temperatures awaken hibernating queens and after being underground all winter their energy reserves are low and very much in need of replenishment before beginning the task of nest hunting. Once a favourable nest site has been found the queen will raise her first brood, but first, she must collect enough pollen for her larvae to consume as they grow into her first worker bees. With enough pollen collected, the queen will lay her first eggs and spend the next few weeks incubating her brood. This takes up a lot of energy and she will have to venture out to replenish her nectar reserves, which she does by going back-and-forth to nearby flowers, so it’s especially important to have a good source of energy in close proximity to the nest at this time. After around two weeks, the larvae spin a cocoon, inside which they develop into adult bees.

Trees for the bees

Image: Bird cherry (Prunus padus)

Photos: Inset Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa); Apple (Malus domestica)

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Summer Throughout early summer the first brood (all female ‘workers’) will busily be carrying out nest duties. Some cleaning, some guarding and some foraging the much-needed nectar and pollen to feed other hungry workers and the next batch of offspring. As summer unfolds, new queens and males are also produced to allow the colony to reproduce. The males leave the nest, seldom returning. The new queens also leave the nest to mate, at this stage it is imperative that these new queens have good sources of pollen and nectar to gorge on in order to store up enough energy for their winter of hibernation ahead.

Autumn & WinterFor the majority of bumblebee species, nests naturally come to an end as summer does. However, in warmer parts of the UK, Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) persist and fully active winter colonies of this species have been recorded, even with temperatures close to freezing and snow on the ground. Therefore, it is vital that they have enough late flowering sustenance available to survive the harsh conditions.

These trees and shrubs are not only bumblebee-friendly but will also provide vital habitat for a whole host of other wildlife and pollinators. Additionally, in many cases, trees and shrubs can also be under-planted with other flowering plants such as hellebores to add further benefit. And if you’re worried that you simply don’t have enough space in your garden to be planting trees, there are plenty of dwarf varieties that can be grown in patio pots – and in the world of bumblebees, every little helps!

SpringCommon hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)Common holly (Ilex aquifolium) – also flowers into the summerBlackcurrant (Ribes nigrum)Bird cherry (Prunus padus) Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) Medlar (Mespilus germanica)Common plum (Prunus domestica)Crab apple (Malus sylvestris)European pear (Pyrus communis)Apple (Malus domestica)

Pussy Willow (Salix caprea) – the catkins are a magnet for queen bumblebeesWinter flowering heather (Erica carnea)

SummerDog rose (Rosa canina)Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus agg)Common raspberry (Rubus idaeus) California Lilac (Ceanothus)Bay tree (Laurus nobilis) – good for short-tongued bumblebeesBuddleia (Buddleja davidii)Red barked dogwood (Cornus alba)Lavender (Lavandula)

Autumn & WinterMahonia (Mahonia aquifolium; apollo variety)Winter flowering honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima)Winter flowering cherry trees (Prunus subhirtella)

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Why your membership is important to bumblebeesYour membership is vital. It helps to fund and support our work to conserve habitats, raise awareness and influence policies to support bumblebees.

Our vision remains firmly focused on creating communities and countryside rich in bumblebees and colourful wildflowers, supporting a diversity of wildlife for everyone to enjoy. You make this happen.

What your money supportsYour membership payments provide the money required for our ‘core’ activities. We all want to help bumblebees and in addition to our amazing conservation and advisory efforts, there is a small but dedicated team ‘running the organisation’ in the background. ‘Core’ activities are the overhead costs as opposed to those specific to a project such as Bee Wild West Wales. These activities are vital in ensuring the charity is fit for purpose so that it can continue to deliver its conservation and awareness raising goals, which just wouldn’t be possible without your support.

Why remain a member? Our aim is to work together and we hope you will continue to support the

conservation of bumblebees for years to come and inspire

friends and family to do the same. We are

immensely proud of our achievements during the past 10 years, which include the creation of over 3,000 hectares of bumblebee friendly

habitat, Bee Walk, launch of our Bee ID

app, workshops and much more! We couldn’t

have done any of this without your continued support and a belief

that between us, we can inspire and educate our future generations to appreciate just how vital bumblebees are to our ecosystems and our general well-being.

Planting pots and borders with bee-friendly plants can have a significant impact for bumblebees and other pollinators, providing them with vital food resources in urban areas, as well as bringing colour and life into our gardens.

By Claire Wales, Support Services Officer

Photos: White-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum) Annelise Emmans Dean; Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) David Mackenzie.

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here? If you would

like to advertise a business or

an event in our next Buzzword magazine, or a future edition, please contact

us for rates and further

information at:

media@bumblebee

conservation.org

Thank you

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I’ve been really excited to start reading more about what I’m going to call ‘companion planting’, it’s about growing different crops/plants together to optimise the way in which they use different niches and provide added benefits. This idea can be adapted to a wide range of agricultural situations. Much of this information I have gleaned from working with farmers from the Calon Wen organic dairy cooperative, reading research from EU-wide projects such as MultiSward (www.multisward.eu/multisward_eng) and from talking with experts such as Ian Wilkinson from Cotswold Seeds and Andrew Howard – a farmer and Nuffield Scholar.

It is generally acknowledged that most intensive commercial methods of farming are not sustainable in their current form. It’s not just that they can be extremely environmentally damaging in a whole raft of ways, but also because we will at some point run out of the resources required to

maintain these systems. And in the current economic and political climate it may be wise for farmers, particularly smaller scale farmers, to be have lower inputs to their farms and be more self-sufficient.

And it seems that quietly there may be a shift happening towards more sustainable farming methods. After all, there are lots of benefits to the farmer, not least from the fact that they will have lower inputs from chemicals such as fertilisers and herbicides and are therefore less susceptible to the vagaries of the market. The crops they are growing, whether they are a multi-species grazing sward (upper layer of soil or expanse of short grass) or a combination of crops, will help them to be more resilient to weather conditions and the changing climate. For multi-species grazing swards, there are added benefits – not only do the livestock like to graze on the wide range of plants in the sward, but it’s also good for them – for example, Bird’s-foot trefoil can

Companion planting - opportunities for bumblebeesWhat if I told you that there is a sustainable way of farming which is good for the environment, and produces as much food as commercial farming but better quality? Sounds too good to be true? Maybe it isn’t.

By Sinead Lynch, Conservation Officer, Wales

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help to treat worms. And the livestock are taking on a variety of vitamins and minerals in their diet, which means that the quality of the product (meat/dairy) is improved. Amazingly enough, these systems of farming are not new. I was surprised to hear Andrew Howard, a Nuffield Scholar and farmer, talk about how even 5,000 years ago the native Americans would grow crops together called the ‘Three Sisters’: sweetcorn, climbing beans and pumpkins or squash. The three grow perfectly together, providing three crops from one plot. The low-growing pumpkin would even help to shade out weeds!

And in fact the idea of animals grazing on a variety of herbs and grasses is certainly not new. I have heard many farmers in Wales tell me that on their farms there used to be a ‘Maes Meddyg’ – a doctors field – which was typically a flower-rich paddock used to graze sick animals, because it was understood that the herbs and grasses would help the animal recover. And this was recognised across much of the UK and Europe.

In an article last year, I wrote about my work with Calon Wen, and how the legumes – members of the pea family such as Clovers, Lucerne, Sainfoin, Peas and Beans – provide foraging opportunities for bumblebees. Many of these ‘companion planting’ systems use legumes. Clover is an important agricultural crop because it helps to fix nitrogen in the soil. Peas and beans are often grown in combination with a grain such as corn. Bird’s-foot trefoil, as mentioned above, may be included in grassland mixes. And it just so happens, that bumblebees love legumes. And it’s not just the legumes – flowers such as Chicory are often included in grazing and ley mixtures.

When I spoke to Ian Wilkinson from Cotswold Seeds, I asked him whether he thought ‘companion planting’ systems such

as multi-species swards could become a more prominent part of agriculture in the UK. He said that demand for such seed mixtures has grown massively in the last few years, and farmers who have switched have stuck with those systems. Ian suggests that the yield can be as good as, if not better than, commercial farming techniques – he cites ‘over-yielding’ where multiple species growing together can be more productive than one crop alone because they are utilising different niches. The MultiSward research seems to confirm this. One of the barriers to getting more farmers to take this up is that it is very knowledge intensive, and there is very little help and guidance out there to help farmers switch. There may also be any number of practical barriers to a farmer changing their farm system ie changes in livestock rotation.

I think the devil may be in the detail here – the opportunities for bumblebees within these farming systems will need further consideration, including in terms of which species may benefit, and how the farm could be managed in order to optimise its benefits. There is no substitute for creating, restoring and enhancing natural habitats for bumblebees, particularly in areas where we are working to conserve rare species. However, looking for opportunities to make the wider landscape more bee-friendly – and less like a green desert – is an important part of what we aim to do at the Trust.

ThanksTo the members of Calon Wen organic dairy cooperative, Ian Wilkinson from Cotswold Seeds and Andrew Howard for their very valuable input.

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Meadow maintenance – the Green Bee way!

Perhaps even more importantly, it also prevents dead grass forming a thatch layer on top of the soil, which wildflower seedlings can struggle to get through. If this thatch is allowed to build up, the only plants that can push their way through in the spring are the thugs – the rushes, docks and nettles - which quickly start to dominate.

In March 2016, we purchased a mower collector machine with a grant from the Postcode Community Trust for use on community sites in and around Caithness. This tractor-mounted grass mower cuts and collects the grass in a single pass, depositing the cuttings in a hopper which can be emptied either onto the ground at a composting site, or tipped into a trailer to be taken

offsite. This purchase is a significant legacy for our project work in the far north, where populations of the rare Great yellow bumblebee are still clinging on to the mainland. The Great yellow is a meadow specialist, so it is essential that these special sites are well managed. It took us some time to research which would be the best machine to purchase and it was (honestly!) quite by chance that this model, the Green Bee 180, turned out to be the perfect for our needs. It must have been fate working in our favour – let’s hope it continues that way!

A cut meadow site at Dunnet Community Forest, Caithness.

The Major Green Bee 180 flail collector mower

180A vital part of annual meadow maintenance involves removing the cut grass. Doing this reduces the amount of nutrients returned to the soil, which creates conditions that encourage more wildflowers, which are more tolerant of these conditions than grasses. Too many nutrients in the soil, means that grasses often grow too vigorously and crowd out the tender wildflowers.

By Katy Malone, Conservation Officer, Scotland

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Meet our new trustees!

Nick Mann escaped from the City in 2008, setting up Habitat Aid Ltd, a company which promotes and sells British plants and seeds sourced from a community of small specialist UK nurseries and growers. Habitat Aid Ltd, gives financial support to conservation charities, including the Trust, for whom Nick has already volunteered at gardening shows too.

Nick travels widely around the country for work and his particular interest is unimproved grassland. He has an ethical approach to business, combined with a practical understanding of the challenges small organizations face. Nick knows this will be useful for the Trust, which he admires for its enthusiasm and ability to get things done. Nick said, “it is important that we have specialist science based conservation charities like the Trust, which inform both policy makers and the general public”.

Nick lives in Somerset where he’s a beekeeper and gardener in his spare time.

Stuart Roberts is a Cambridge educated scientist and Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Agri-Environmental Research at the University of Reading. He has been studying various aspects of bee biology, ecology and biogeography both in the UK and elsewhere for some 30 years and was heavily involved in both the BAP process and the Species Recovery Programme in the 1990’s.

Stuart served as Chairman of the highly respected UK Bees Wasps & Ants Recording Society (BWARS) from 2005-2010.

He was one of the driving forces behind the European Red List for Bees (published in 2015) and has presented on threats to bees and drivers of change across the UK, and at conferences in India, Argentina, the

USA and widely across the EU. He has always been an advocate of large-scale collaborative work and in

bringing together the voluntary sector and the academic

community.

Welcome Nick & Stuart

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Dawn 2016

We’re often asked what we do during the winter months after bumblebee season draws to a close. The answer is simple! A huge amount . . some of our staff have provided a small insight.

Dr Nikki Gammans, Conservation Manager, Short-haired bumblebee project

‘Bumblebees - an introduction’! - co-ordinating, editing and co-writing the new Bumblebee Conservation Trust book for beginners, plus organising the up and coming field season for the Short-haired bumblebee project; setting the dates for bumblebee blitz days, plans for habitat management and which farmers and land owners to visit.

Sinead Lynch, Conservation Officer, Bee Wild West WalesPlanning consultation events in Penparcau (Aberystwyth) and Tumble (Llanelli) which took place in February. Following these events we’re hoping to have completed some planting in March! Working on developing projects such as the ‘Pollinating the Levels’ project which will be part of a big ‘Living levels’ Heritage Lottery Fund project being led by RSPB, as well as a project with Calon Wen organic dairy cooperative. TheA highlight, has been attending the Oxford Real Farming Conference, where I learned plenty of new points about sustainable farming methods. Finally, my meeting with Steffan Lewis AM, who is the Species Champion for Shrill carder bee (Bombus sylvarum) for the Welsh Assembly.

Winter working wonderland12

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Helen Dickinson, Surveys & GIS Officer

Planning and organising early spring workshops in Central Scotland and preparing specimens for ID training. Giving talks to local natural history groups. Writing content for the BeeWalk annual report, updating BeeWalk volunteer and transect databases, matching new BeeWalkers with un-walked transects. Various GIS (geographical information system) mapping activities, producing updated species distribution maps for our upcoming bumblebee book, providing maps and data to our Conservation Officer for project reports - and breathe!

Darryl Cox, Science & Policy Officer

After the whirlwind that is summer working at the Trust, winter is a time when we can catch our breaths, reflect on how the year has gone and consider how we can improve things. I tend to do more development work during this time, writing new content for articles, newsletters and the website. Last year we spent time creating a new nest leaflet to help inform people about what to do when they find a nest. This leaflet is great to give people the essential need-to-know information and has helped us deal with one of our most common summer enquiries more efficiently.

Cathy Horsley, Conservation Officer, West Country Buzz

West Country Buzz has been out and about over the beautiful South West countryside, working with farmers to provide food, nests and shelter for bumblebees. Winter is the perfect time for looking over land management plans, and we’re helping farmers to find ways to include pollinators. Many are already doing an impressive amount, such as careful hedgerow management to encourage flowers, and leaving areas of long grass to make vital nesting space. You can keep up to date with the project on our website, or follow us on twitter @BuzzingDevon.

Dr. Richard Comont, Science Manager

Winter starts as a time to catch up with everything that didn’t get done during the field season and ends with preparation for spring, the busiest time of year. Pre-Christmas was mostly a blur of presentations for the AGM and reports for the final board meeting of the year; January so far has been spent sorting out the previous year’s BeeWalk data. Next on the agenda is budgeting for the year ahead and writing workplans, plus, most excitingly, doing analysis and writing BeeWalk’s first ever Annual Report.

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Remembering the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in your Will is a special way to support the future of Britain’s bumblebees. A gift to us in your Will would leave a lasting legacy, which will help create communities and countryside rich in colourful wildflowers and bees, supporting a diversity of wildlife and habitats for everyone to enjoy.

After providing for those you care for, please consider leaving just a small proportion of what’s left over to support the future of Britain’s bumblebees. Every gift, regardless of size counts. We appreciate that leaving a gift in a Will is a very personal decision and we promise to respect you and your choices.

For more information, please contact: membership@bumblebeeconservation.org

Leaving a Legacy

Bumblebee Books (new & old)

Write for a copy of our bee book list · In stock are:

Benton. NN98. Bumblebees. £60·00Bumblebee (children)Wilson & Kennaway.

£11·99Corbet/Prys-Jones. Bumblebees. hb. (3rd

edition) £19·95Benton. Bumbles of Essex. hb. £18·50

Goulson – Bumblebees 2nd Ed. (2009). pb. £29·95

Sladen. The Humble-Bee. hb. £14·95Kearns & Thomson. Natural History of

Bumblebees. £20·99Edwards & Jenner. Field Guide to Bumblebees

(best for ID). £13·99Bumblebee Poster (22 species in colour). £4·50

(£7·95 in a tube)Plus numerous new and second hand bee

books. SAE appreciated.

Ash View, Tump Lane, Much Birch, Herefordshire HR2 8HP • Tel: 01981 540907

Twitter.com@BumblebeeTrust@BuzzingPeak

Instagram.comBumblebeeconservationtrust

Follow us on:

Facebook.comBumblebee-conservation-trust

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The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is delighted to announce its first publication! Written and produced by the Trust, titled ‘Bumblebees - an introduction’ we will be launching in summer 2017!

The book is a beginners guide to bumblebees and what you need to know; covering their ecology and identifying all the UK species. Beautifully written and illustrated with vibrant photography, it is suitable for all ages from 12 years. Topics featured include aspects of bumblebee biology, the importance of pollination and sadly bumblebee declines. We provide guidance in how to help, how to survey

New book! Coming soon ‘Bumblebees - An introduction’

and an easy to use identification guide, all with enjoyment at its core.

The identification pages will feature some of the most colourful photography from the UK’s best bumblebee photographers including photographs by Heather Angel.

This book is unique in as much as it is the first bumblebee book to be published which includes both ecology and identification at a beginners level.

We are very excited about the launch of our first book during the summer of 2017 and all profits will go to conserving the UK’s bumblebees and the Trust’s ongoing conservation work.

Details of the publication date, stockists and cost will be provided nearer the date. We are confident this book will appeal to every age group and one you will want to add to your bookcase! We are looking forward to sharing it soon!

Photos (top): Brown-banded carder bee worker (Bombus humilis) (bottom):White-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum)

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What can I find in my garden?In early spring, some common solitary bees to look out for are:

Tawny Mining bee (Andrena fulva) – bold, ginger-haired females. Nests are like mini volcanoes of soil – look out for them in your lawn.Red Mason bee (Osmia bicornis) – common resident of bee hotels, you may spot the females bringing mud to the nest to complete each cell.Ashy Mining bee (Andrena cineraria) - black and white striped, often found foraging on fruit tree blossom.Hairy-footed Flower bee (Anthophora plumipes) – lovers of Lungwort, these round bees look like small bumblebees and zip around with considerable speed.

It’s the time of year now when we will be hearing the ‘buzz’ of the queen bumblebee, freshly emerged from hibernation and on the lookout for a suitable place to nest. That’s not the only thing to get excited about though! There’s a whole other world of bees out there waiting to be discovered: the solitary bees. These little creatures can be found from as early as February and as spring gets going, there are plenty of different ones to spot.

By Rosie Earwaker, Data Manager

for RSPB

Solitary Bees

Yellow-legged Mining bee (Andrena flavipes) – along with the other mining bees, these quite like a dandelion. With their striped abdomen and yellow legs, the females are very distinctive.

Fooled you!As well as these, there are some bees that you might come across that you wouldn’t necessarily think were bees; they appear more wasp-like. Some of these are cuckoo bees, sneaking into

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the nests of other bees where they lay their eggs. Others are the tiny yellow-faced bees, which instead of collecting pollen on specialised hairs on their body, ingest it. These bees are not generally very hairy, so different from the ‘fluffy’ bees that we may be more used to.

How can I attract solitary bees to my garden?Availability of flowers is usually what is focused on when we think about what we can do for bees, but it’s not just food that’s important; we also need to think about where they nest.

With the earliest solitary bees – like the Early Mining bee (Andrena clarkella) – appearing in February and the latest ones persisting sometimes into November – the Ivy bee (Colletes hederae) – one of the key considerations when choosing plants for your garden is their flowering time. Will there be something flowering in every month throughout this period? The other key consideration is the type of plant. Some bees are not too fussy about the pollen they collect, while others may collect it from one specific type of plant, or a group of plants. Have you got a range of different plant families? Some good ones include plants in the rose, daisy and cabbage families.

Bee hotels are a great way to attract bees to nest in your garden, but also to observe them. Place these in south-facing, sunny situations. If you’re making your own, you can use bamboo canes, or drill holes into wood. Make sure the holes aren’t too big though – our British bees aren’t big enough to use anything above about 10mm diameter. Not all bees will use bee hotels, with some preferring to make their own nesting burrows in wood, and many others nesting in the soil so keep an eye out for these species too! For further information on how to make your own bee hotel and provide homes for bees, visit homes.rspb.org.uk.

Rosie Earwaker works as a Data Manager for RSPB, spending time mapping and managing species records, as well as carrying out survey and monitoring work on plants and invertebrates. She is RSPB’s lead on the Shrill Carder bee (Bombus sylvarum), working closely with the Trust to conserve this bumblebee. The Trust works in partnership with RSPB on a number of projects, including the Short-haired bumblebee reintroduction project and the forthcoming Making a Buzz for the Coast project.

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Clockwise, from top left: Ashy Mining bee (Andrena cineraria); a cuckoo bee (Nomada goodeniana);

Hairy-footed Flower bee (Anthophora plumipes); Tawny Mining bee (Andrena fulva)

Images credited to: Will George.

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The Trust’s 10th AGM and Members’ Day was an extra special event, celebrating not only our 10th birthday but our milestone achievement of reaching our 10,000 member target! The event was held on Saturday 10 December 2016 at the London Wetland Centre, ‘an urban oasis for wildlife and people’, with 110 attendees, which included members, guests, staff and volunteers.

Our CEO, Gill Perkins, opened the day with musings of her childhood spent in a changing countryside, and urged everyone to try to reconnect with nature and ‘Bee the revolution’ by spreading the word about the plight of the bumblebee. Gill thanked our members, who are keeping this important cause alive.

Professor Michael Usher opened the AGM, with an overview of the Trust’s highlights of 2015-16, which included our successes in securing scientific evidence for practical conservation work and for influencing policies, plans and strategies. He also gave thanks to retiring trustee Professor Jane Stout, who for the last three years has been hugely instrumental in developing the Irish pollinator strategy and will be missed. You can view the AGM minutes and results at: www.bumblebeeconservation.org/governance

After the official business was concluded, the day moved on to an overview of the exciting projects currently underway, including ‘Making a Buzz’, ‘Pollinating the Peak’, ‘BeeWild West Wales’, ‘Short-haired bumblebee reintroduction’, ‘Thurso: Gateway to the Great Yellow’ and the BeeWalk monitoring scheme.

AGM & Members’ day

Saturday 10 December 2016

AGM News

Gill Perkins, CEO

Kate MacRae, Guest Speaker

Valerie Mayo, 10,000th member

Steven Falk artwork

Rhodri Green for Pollinating the Peak project

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During the break we enjoyed chatting with our members from far and wide, and as well as the Trust’s merchandise, we were delighted to welcome back Steven Falk, who brought copies of his book and beautiful prints to sell. This year, high quality gifts were donated for a raffle, including work from notable artists Kurt Jackson, Jessica Albarn, Sarah Jane Bellwood, and Daniel Mackie. We also had an interesting information stall run by our Pollinating the Peak staff.

This year’s theme was about gardening and we were fortunate to have special guest speaker, Kate MacRae (known as ‘Wildlife Kate’), who has appeared on BBC’s Springwatch and Countryfile programmes. Kate led us through the story of moving into her new home in Litchfield on a large plot of land and how she transformed the land into a wildlife haven. Kate gave tips and tricks for creating different habitats for different creatures and ended her talk by showing us the results of her many nest box cameras set up to capture the different creatures that were enjoying their new homes – including a dancing squirrel! For more information on Kate, please visit her website: www.wildlifekate.co.uk

Professor Pete Hollingsworth, who is a Trustee as well as Director of Science at Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh,

gave a fascinating insight into DNA bar coding and

Environmental DNA (eDNA). The future looks exciting with an app being developed for phones, which, when aimed at a species will have the ability to ID exactly what it is!

We held a special certificate presentation ceremony, to recognise the contribution of four people; Ron Rock, James Riall, Allan Watson and Chris Hardy, who have gone above and beyond to help bumblebees. Lastly of course, we wanted to celebrate our 10,000th member, Valerie Mayo from Surrey.

The day finished with our ‘Question Time’ session, where attendees had the opportunity to pose questions to our panel of staff and Kate MacRae.

Thank you to those who attended, as well as the staff and volunteers who made the day run smoothly.

We appreciate the lovely feedback we received in the word cloud above!

We are currently planning the 11th AGM and Members’ Day, which is scheduled for October 2017 in York and we hope to see you there! Further information will be available on our website soon at www.bumblebeeconservation.org/agm.

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Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Parkway House Business Centre, Eastleigh Works, Campbell Road, Eastleigh, Hampshire SO50 5AD.The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is a registered charity (England & Wales 1115634 / Scotland SC042830). Prin

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