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Recruit a friend or make a donation to help BBCT conserve the UK‟s bumblebees

I would like to join the BBCT / I would like to make a donation: Name…………………………….………………………………………. Address……………………...……………………………………….…..…………………………………….……..……………………..………… Postcode……………………………... Tel …………………...………. Email…..……………………………… Date ………………………….

Please enclose a cheque or fill in the standing order form (below)

Membership type: Child (under 12) £9 Standard £16 Joint £20

concession/BWARS member £12 Family/Friend £25

Fellow £50 Overseas £25 Life £500

Gift Aid Declaration

I want the charity to treat all donations that I make from the date of this declaration until I notify you otherwise as Gift Aid donations*

Signed………………………………………...… Date ………….…………

Post to: Bumblebee Conservation Trust, School of Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA

Instructions to your bank or building society to pay by standing order

Bank/ Building Society

Address

Name of Account Holder(s)

Account number: Sort code:

Please pay the undernoted standing order to:

Account name: Bumblebee Conservation Trust Bank: Bank of Scotland

Please pay the amount of £ ……………… In words ………………………pounds Commencing ……../………./………….. (first payment) and thereafter annually

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*You must pay an amount of income tax and/or capital gains tax in each tax year at least equal to the tax that we will claim from HM Revenue & Customs on your Gift Aid donation(s). Please notify us if you want to cancel this declaration, if you change your name or home address or if you no longer pay sufficient tax on your income and/or capital gains.

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BuzzWord Newsletter

of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Issue 11 - 2009

www.bumblebeeconservation.org

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Contents of Issue 11:

Editorial & news update Page 3 The hot blooded bumblebee Page 6 Short-haired bumblebee reintroduction project Page 8 Great yellow bumblebee does well in 2009 Page 10 Members’ pages Page 12 Classifieds Page 16

Who are we: Prof. Dave Goulson - Chair of Board of Trustees Dr. Ben Darvill - Development Manager Bob Dawson - Conservation Officer - Scotland Dr Pippa Rayner - Conservation Officer - England and Wales Dr Nikki Gammans - Short-haired bumblebee project officer Christiane Nitsch - Administrator (maternity leave) Emma Heskey - Membership Administrator (maternity cover) Natasha Rolph - Outreach and Education Officer Gillian Lye - PhD student and BeeWatch co-ordinator

Contacts Bumblebee Conservation Trust, School of Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA. Tel: 01786 467818 Membership enquiries: membership@bumblebeeconservation.org General enquiries: enquiries@bumblebeeconservation.org BeeWatch: beewatch@bumblebeeconservation.org Full details of Trust activities and more information about bumblebees can be found on our web pages: www.bumblebeeconservation.org

Please renew your membership!

You may have received a letter with this magazine, notifying you that your membership soon needs to be renewed, or that it has already expired. If we have sent you this letter in error or if you have recently renewed then please disregard the letter and accept our sincere apologies! If you do need to renew then we very much hope that you will choose to stay with us. Without your continued support there would be very little that we could do to save our beautiful bumblebees!

Cover picture: A male red-tailed bumblebee. Photo by Vinny Blood

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18

Gardening for

bumblebees

Produced by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust

by Dave Goulson

Get your

garden into shape now!

Gardening for Bumblebees is priced at £3.00*

(including postage and packaging).

* minimum donation

ADVERTISE IN BUZZWORD Buzzword goes out to our rapidly growing membership of >6,000

three times per year. If you would like to advertise in Buzzword, contact

enquiries@bumblebeeconservation.org to find out about our competitive rates.

Books New and Old, The Weaven, Little Dewchurch,

Herefordshire, HR2 6PP. Telephone: 01432 840529

Write for a copy of our bee book list. In stock are:- Benton. NN98. Bumblebees. £60.00

Corbet/Prys-Jones. Bumblebees. hb. £9.95 Benton. Bumbles of Essex. hb. £18.50

Sladen. The Humble-Bee. hb £14.95 Kearns & Thomson. Natural History of Bumblebees. £20.99 Intenthron/Gerrard. Making Nests for Bumblebees. £4.50

Edwards & Jenner. Field Guide to Bumblebees. £11.99

Plus numerous new & second hand bee books. SAE appreciated.

Cards welcome (Access/Visa but not Switch)

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Editorial and news update

As ever, it has been a busy few months at BBCT! The office has seen a flurry of activity, with more new members and all sorts of enquiries. Our on-the-ground staff, Bob Dawson (Scotland), Pippa Rayner (England and Wales) and Nikki Gammans (short-haired bumblebee project officer) have been equally active. Advisory work with farmers and other land managers is bearing fruit, and we‟re seeing pockets of bee-friendly habitat popping up all over the place. They‟ve also put on all sorts of bumblebee-related events, including manning stalls at shows, giving talks in village halls, visiting primary schools, running farm open days, and leading bumblebee walks. Some of our events are now run entirely by volunteers, which has allowed us to expand our activities even further. If you would like to get involved with running BBCT events, please get in touch. We have continued to try to raise awareness of bee conservation issues with politicians and decision makers, and to this end BBCT Development Manager Ben Darvill recently visited Number 10, Downing Street. The Prime Minister's wife, Sarah Brown, has picked up on the growing awareness of bee declines, and her personal interest prompted Downing Street advisors to take a closer look at the issues. At an initial fact-finding meeting we discussed the value of bees to the UK economy and the ways in which we felt the government could help boost bee populations. We were pleased to stress that a government initiative which placed a strong emphasis on the provision of flower-rich habitat through existing agri-environment schemes would go a long way to addressing current declines. Although too short for an in depth discussion of all of the issues, it was encouraging that the government are showing an interest. We hope that some of our messages have reached the right people, and that beneficial policies might ultimately be forthcoming.

We are at present also providing information to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology for a briefing note on pollinating insects. This will be used to inform MPs on the key issues which may help to make better policy. This briefing note aims to address the evidence for decline in pollinating insects in the UK, the risks to the UK agricultural output and biodiversity, and strategies which could be implemented to maintain pollinating insect diversity and abundance. An excellent opportunity I hope you‟ll agree, and definitely progress... On a sad note, we are sorry to announce that Peter Barber, one of our first members and a stalwart contributor to BeeWatch, recently

New BBCT Conservation Officer Pippa Rayner (centre) with helpers from the Grasslands Trust all dressed in full bumblebee regalia at the Romsey Show,

Dr. Ben Darvill at No. 10

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passed away. Peter was a wonderful and enthusiastic supporter of BBCT, and among other things sent us many excellent photos, which he quickly became expert at identifying. We are incredibly grateful to Peter for leaving us a legacy of £100,000. This is unprecedented in our short history, and will enable us to do yet more for our bumblebees. Peter, we will not forget you, and we promise to make the best use possible of this money. Peter would, I‟m sure, have approved of another notable recent highlight - a thirty minute documentary on BBC Radio 4 entitled “The Plight of the Bumblebee”. Long in the planning, it introduced a new and hopefully receptive audience to the importance of bumblebees. We hope that many of you heard the news via our e-newsletter and tuned in! A big thank you to all of the people who kindly responded to our request for help with databases. We clearly have multi- talented members! If all goes well we should soon have an all-new membership database plus an improved BeeWatch system - thank you Roy, Marion, Gary, John, Martin, Richard, Colin and others. Thanks also to Bioforce UK , Seasalt Cornwall and Kelling Heath Holiday Park. These ethically-minded companies have kindly fundraised or made substantial donations to BBCT. Please take a moment to visit their websites: http://www.avogel.co.uk http://www.seasaltcornwall.co.uk http://www.kellingheath.co.uk

The High Wycombe Bumblebee Walk organised by Clive Hill. If you would like to lead a bumble-bee walk next year, do get in touch with the BBCT team.

Leave a legacy…. Have you enjoyed a lifetime’s pleasure from bumblebees and the habitats which they depend on? Why not help to ensure their future by leaving a legacy to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in your will? As a small organisation most of our income is directly spent on conservation. Any contribution, large or small, will be put to good use. If you would like to remember the BBCT in your will, please get in touch with us and we will advise you on the next step. 17

The perfect Christmas present for bumblebee enthusiasts!

Bumblebees; their behaviour, Ecology and Conservation. By Dave Goulson. OUP 2010. ~£28 at all good bookshops! “a perfect reference work for anyone interested in bumblebees” (Trends in Ecology & Evolution) “all that you never knew about bees is revealed” (Ulster Star)

This book provides an account of almost everything that is known about bumblebees. It describes how and where they evolved, the intricacies of their life cycle, how they keep warm, navigate and communicate. As one might expect from one of the founders of the BBCT there is an extensive chapter on bumblebee declines and efforts to conserve them. The book is detailed and scientific, but uses a minimum of jargon and is readable by anyone. It is not an identification guide, although there is a colour plate illustrating the UK species.

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Photo: Dick Alderson

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Please think of the bees this Christmas….

Make a Christmas donation. We have over 6,000 members now (wow - thank you all for the incredible support!). If every member could spare just a little this Christmas it would really make a difference to our conservation work in 2010. Just imagine what you could help us to achieve. Please help us to ride this wave of interest and change things for the better. Let‟s cover the UK in flowers! Make a gift of BBCT membership. An affordable and interesting Christmas present for family of friends. Following the popularity of last year‟s offer we are again offering FREE copies of Gardening for Bumblebees with every new membership in the run up to Christmas. It‟s up to you whether to include the book with the gift, or keep it for yourself (they‟ll never know!). If you would like to purchase a gift membership, please use the form you received with this issue of Buzzword.

Alternatively, why not pick up one or more copies of Gardening for Bumblebees for just £3 inc. P & P GREAT STOCKING FILLERS! Gardening for Bumblebees was written by BBCT Director, Professor Dave Goulson. It is packed with information about how to turn your garden into a refuge for bumblebees and other wildlife. With extensive suggestions about what to plant for bumblebees, and how to provide simple nest sites, this book could add an extra buzz to your garden next spring!

The perfect novelty gift... GREAT STOCKINGS!

Available in the run up to Christmas, these snazzy socks are surely a must! With 100% of profits going to BBCT, we hope all of our members will buy them for friends and family! A pack of 3 is only £9.99 from http://www.mandmdirect.com

Gloomy economic times for many of us can also make life difficult for charities, but we‟re determined not to lose our momentum. We‟d like to wish everyone a warm and wonderful season of celebration, and a flourishing spring to come. We have a really positive feeling about all of the changes we‟re beginning to see and we‟re looking forward to the coming months and years.

Could you help us to help the bees at Christmas time?

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to:

Ste

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Day

The hot blooded bumblebee by Dave Goulson

I loved biology lessons at school; it was, you will not be surprised to hear, my favourite subject. I remember being taught that insects, fish, amphibians and reptiles are cold-blooded, which has the proper and extremely unwieldy name “poikilothermic”, while mammals and birds are warm-blooded or “homeothermic”. It turns out that this isn‟t quite true. Some insects, including dragonflies, hawkmoths and bumblebees, are essentially warm-blooded. Flying bumblebees have a body temperature that tends to be constant at about 35

oC, close to the usual temperature of a human body, and far higher than the air

temperatures in which they fly. An even rudimentary grasp of physics suggests that this is quite extraordinary. The rate at which an object cools is determined by its surface area divided by its volume. Big things, such as blue whales, have a small surface relative to their volume, and so they cool very slowly and can keep warm even in very cold conditions. In contrast, small things, such as flies, have a huge surface area relative to their volume, and lose any internal heat almost instantaneously to the air around them. Yet bumblebees, which are rather closer to flies than to blue whales in the grand scheme of things, can keep themselves warm even when the surrounding air is 30

oC cooler than their body

temperature; a phenomenal feat. How do they do this?

The answer is in two parts. Keeping warm if you are small can be achieved by having lots of insulation, or by generating a lot of heat. Bumblebees do both. Insulation is provided by their dense furry coat. Bumblebees such as Bombus polaris that live in the arctic have particularly long fur, and they also tend to be bigger than more southerly bumblebees, which helps. I‟ve never been to the arctic, must it must be amazing to see these huge furry creatures flying across the icy landscape.

Heat is generated by the contractions of the flight muscles. A bumblebee flaps its wings 200 times per second (=12,000 rpm), roughly the equivalent to the speed of a high-revving motorbike engine. These rapid contractions generate lots of heat which keeps the bee warm, but it comes at a cost. Flight in bumblebees is enormously expensive in terms of the energy that it used. The metabolic cost of flight in bumblebees has been estimated at about 1.2 kJh

-1. This figure won‟t

Infra-red photograph of a buff-tailed bumblebee worker, vividly demonstrating that the thorax is many degrees above ambient temperature. Photo by J.S. Ishay 15

Bumblebee Quilt Dear BBCT I am having a solo Patchwork Quilt Exhibition in The Members' Gallery at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Riverside Mill, Bovey Tracey, Devon TQ13 9AF from 7 Nov- 8 Dec 2009. One of the quilts I shall be exhibiting depicts bumblebees & is called "The Plight of the Bumblebee". The quilt is 38" across x 49" long, machine pieced & hand quilted. If sold I should like to give a donation to The Bumblebee Conservation Trust. If the quilt is not sold at the exhibition, it will still be for sale & anyone interested should contact me, via BBCT. I really enjoy being a member of the Trust. The membership pack & newsletter are so enthusiastic & encouraging. We have many bumblebees in our garden here near Dartmoor, but they are so difficult to photograph! Jenny Hutchison If you are interested in owning this beautiful and unique quilt please contact BBCT. We’ll pass on your details to Jenny, and if the quilt is still available then she’ll give you a ring…

Mike Petersen, a garden and landscape designer based in Cambridge, is offering to buy all of his new clients membership to BBCT. Mike also offers garden maintenance services. If you live in the Cambridge area, please do recommend Mike to your friends!

Landscape designer offers free BBCT memberships

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Dear BBCT, I just wanted to thank you again for the bee-friendly-plant seeds you and the team provided for our wedding day…they went down a treat and are just bril-liant!! I know some of our guests made donations to BBCT as well after taking the seeds, so definitely a good result! In case you're interested, we also had a "bee-themed" wedding cake. Thanks again, and all the best, Mark & Polly Corfield Reply: Warmest congratulations and best wishes for the future!

Sirs, Just recently on the TV was a programme on Darwin. The presenter was Jimmy Doherty, he runs a pig farm in Suffolk. The point is he had obtained several bumblebee hives for an experiment on his farm. The question is can I buy one and from where? I am sure many other members would be interested in doing the same, if it is possible. Many thanks, Peter Benton Reply: Dear Peter, Please do not buy one of these nests. The only bumblebee nests on sale in the UK are not of British origin, but are a European strain of the buff-tailed bumblebee (although they have white rather than buff tails!). They are imported mainly for pollinating tomatoes and soft fruits such as raspberries, but in the past gardeners have also been encouraged to buy them. These are not native bees and their importation runs the risk that they might escape into the wild, or diseases may accidentally be imported with them. All in all, it is much better to encourage our wild, native bumblebees by providing flowers and nesting areas than to buy in these beasts from abroad.

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mean a lot to most people, so let me put it in context. A running man uses up the calories in a Mars bar in about 1 hour. A man-sized bumblebee (which would, I admit, be a pretty terrifying prospect) would use up the calories in a Mars bar in less than 30 seconds. Hummingbirds are often thought of as having exceptionally high metabolic rates, but the metabolic rate of a bumblebee is roughly 75% higher. This simple fact explains an awful lot about the biology and conservation of bumblebees. They have to eat almost continually to keep warm; a bumblebee with a full stomach is only ever about 40 minutes from starvation. If a bumblebee runs out of energy, she cannot fly, and if she cannot fly then she cannot collect more food from flowers, so she is doomed. The high energy demands of bumblebees explains why they cannot thrive without lots of flowers, and so why most bumblebee species have declined in recent decades as flowers have become more scarce in the countryside.

It is not uncommon to see bumblebees, particularly queen bees in spring, walking slowly along the ground. They are particularly obvious when they are walking along the pavement. These are bees that have run out of energy. If you put your hand near one she will feebly raise a middle leg at you, the defence posture of the tired bee, but you can gently coax her onto your hand and she is very unlikely to sting. I often hear from kindly folk that take

these bees home and give them a teaspoon of sugared water to sip. Usually they revive, and start to warm themselves up by shivering their flight muscles (although sometimes they fall into the puddle of syrup and become hopelessly wet and sticky). In flight, the wings are pulled up and down by opposing sets of muscles, but during shivering both sets contract at the same time so that the wings don‟t move. These contractions generate heat, warming the muscles and enabling them to contract more frequently, so generating even more heat. Once their body temperature reaches about 30

oC the muscles begin to contract

alternately, the wings begin to beat, and off they go!

The dense furry coat of bumblebees has obvious advantages in cold weather, but it can create problems when the weather is warm. Bumblebees cannot help but produce lots of heat when they fly so on hot summer days they can be in danger of overheating. This is probably why bumblebees are not common in Mediterranean countries, and why there are almost none in the tropics. If their body temperature exceeds 44

oC they will die, and as

they get close to this lethal limit their metabolism collapses and they become unable to fly. It is noticeable that those species of bumblebee that occur in warmer climates tend to have shorter fur, while those species from high latitudes and altitudes tend to be very large and very furry. It really is incredible that so much complexity of design and behaviour is packed into the diminutive bodies of our furry little friends… yet we still have much to learn.

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Short-haired bumblebee reintroduction project storms forwards! by Dave Goulson

In the last issue, we wrote about this exciting project which aims to reintroduce the extinct short-haired bumblebee back to the UK. The bee went extinct in UK in 1988, but a British population survives in New Zealand. We hope to bring them back in 2010 or 2011. A vital part of the project is creating enough good habitat to ensure that the bees can now survive. There is no point in bringing them back so that they can disappear again! Bumblebees can fly a long way from their nest to find food, so our aim is to try to cover this corner of Kent with patches of flowers, so that wherever a short-haired bumblebee

should choose to build a nest, there will always be a patch of food within flying distance. To this end, project officer Nikki Gammans has spent much of the last 9 months meeting with farmers, landowners and conservation groups, explaining the importance of bumblebees, and persuading them to manage corners of their land in a way that will provide flowers. The target area is in and around Dungeness and Romney Marsh in Kent, where the bee was last recorded. Farmers are encouraged to put in “pollen and nectar” strips along their field edges, to recreate flower meadows (by rotating livestock), or to put in clover ley crops (which also boost soil fertility). The map (bottom right) shows just how successful this has been. The project‟s original target was a minimum of 0.2ha within each of ten 1 x 1 km squares. We are pleased to announce we have quadrupled our target and have 45 1 x 1 km squares with at least 0.2ha of habitat (and in many cases the patches are far larger than this). A big thank you to everyone who has helped with this.

One local farmer, Larry Cooke of MoneyPenny farm had some amazing red clover hay meadows this year. He was so pleased with

A meadow full of red clover near Dungeness; a sight to make any long-tongued bumblebee‟s mouth water! 13

Hi folks I recently joined the Trust as a Friend and was thoroughly delighted to receive my lovely certificate and membership pack. I would like to pass on an observation and word of warning to other members. [ed. A popular washing up liquid] and similar household products contain natural plant extracts or essential oils. On several occasions recently, I have been washing up using the floral scented products and these natural essences seem to be very attractive to bees judging from the number that have attempted to fly in the kitchen window. More than once, a bee has ended up in the washing up bowl and although most have been shooed out of the window again, sadly some have met with an unfortunate demise. I have many 'bee-friendly' plants and flowers in the garden, especially lupins and honeysuckle, but the level of scent generated by this product, especially when used in hot water, seems to be enough to confuse many bees, distracting them from the actual plants and enticing them towards a watery fate. As an experiment, I put a few drops of the detergent on a saucer and left it out on the table on my patio and within a minute or so, had several buff-tailed bees coming over for a look-see. While it is very nice to have attractively scented household products, my concern is that perhaps the side-effect of being attractive to bees is a negative one. Especially in sunny weather where we tend to leave windows open for ventilation. Perhaps I'm not giving bees enough credit for the ability to discern the difference, but the bees round our way certainly seem to be lured in the window by the scent of the washing up liquid. I would urge other bee-lovers to avoid using this kind of product or, at the very least, be vigilant for the poor confused bees that make this potentially fatal mistake! Keep up the good work! Mike Percival (Surrey) Reply: The chemicals in these products (surfactants, hormone-disrupting phthalates, phosphates and musks) are harmful once they spiral down the plughole too. We recommend that readers try using one of the widely available environmentally-friendly alternatives - surely the eco-logical choice?!

Buzzword Top Tips! Dear BBCT, I hate seeing dead bumble-bees in the house. Dog and children's feet have also occasionally suffered stings from lost bees. So, this is my "How to get a bee out of your house without harming it" guide: Remove head of vacuum cleaner and slide a sock over the tube. Set vacuum to low. Hold sock to prevent loss. Turn vacuum on and place near bee. Click - got it. Place tube upright out of window/door and turn off vacuum. They always fly away apparently unharmed. Not sure if they ever come back… Better than leaving them to their own devices? Regards, Bernard Payne

Editor’s comment: Sheer genius! We love this idea!

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Members‟ Pages

Welcome and thank you to our new Fellows and Friends! It‟s truly wonderful to receive so much support

Dear BBCT, Was a bit bored last night with a picture of a bee that I couldn't do much with.... this was the result! Please excuse the very poor photoshop techniques! Chas Spradbery Reply: BBCT likes to portray bumblebees as cute and cuddly, but we must admit that this one looks pretty terrifying close up! We’re often asked by journalists “What will happen if all of the bees disappear?”. While it’s unlikely that mankind would also vanish, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the world would be a very different (and less colourful) place...

Fellows: Richard Barnes, Jenny Cain, Veryan Codd, Nick Delaney, Lee Dowley, L Gudgeon, Mark Jacombs, L R Johnstone, Stephen Russell, Peter Rylands, Janey Thatcher, M H Trevelyan, Petra Van Duuren, Diana Whitman Friends: Josie Aldridge, Marcella Arnow, M Barron, Kay Bauer, J Baxter, John Blake, Nick Bond, Emma Brookes, Pauline Brophy, Thomas Cahill-Jones, F Chubb, Karen Clarke, Roger Cole, Sharon Corby, M Corfield, Jonathan Coyle, S Crow, Carly Culshaw, Peter J Davies, Paul Deacon, Valerie Di Paolo, Hilary Dilnot, Mrs H F Dilnot, David Fairbairn, David Fathers, Jean Fitzpatrick, Amanda Glover, Sarah Gorringe, Georgia Gough, Patrick Green, Chris Greenwood, Stewart Hall, Ross Harrington, Sam Hawcroft, Virginia Hay, Sarah Higgins, Jayne Hilton, Laurel Hurst, Robert Izzard, Gail Jamieson, Mrs Kelley, Morag Lindsay, Penny Lorriman, Alison Marsh, M Mccleary, Brenda McCormick, Jemma Mclaughlan, Jeremy Millen, Sally Montgomery, Annette Moran, Cara Munday, Jayne Noble, Sara Northey, Kayleigh O'Callaghan, Mrs J R Olds, Julie Page, Peter Peacock, R Preston, Eva Rainbow-Hills, Dian Reed, Madeleine Rice, Catherine Robinson, Justine Robson, Maureen Robson, Maxwell Sawyer, Liz Scott-Tatum, Carol Sheridan, Michelle Simpson, Samantha Skelton, Eileen Spalding, Helen Speakman, Brian Stanbury, Miss A M Stark, Doreen Thacker, Jane Town, Stephen Trigg, Roger Turberville, Anne-Marie Walduck, Jonathan Walmsley, Katherine Watson, Elisabeth Welbourn, Martyn Wheatley, Angela Willis, Richard Wood

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them that he agreed to host a „Bumblebee Day‟ at his farm for local farmers to come along and see how he did it. Larry has SSSI land and is also in a HLS scheme run by Natural England, which gives grants to farmers to create bee-friendly habitat. The work is already paying dividends. Local ecologist Brian Banks has been monitoring bumblebee numbers for many years in the area. Although the short-haired bumblebee is not yet there to benefit, other rare bumblebees including the brown-banded carder and moss carder seem to be increasing in numbers and spreading outwards from the nature reserve at Dungeness. This project illustrates that it is possible to change the British countryside for the better. Just imagine if we could roll this approach out across the whole of the UK; if we could persuade every farmer to have a patch of wildflowers, and every gardener to put in some bee-friendly plants. It can be done! We can make the UK a happy place for bees! Nikki is off to New Zealand in mid-November to begin catching the queens of the short haired bumblebee. Keep up to date with the project on her blog for the latest news from the project! This work would not be possible without the financial support of Natural England, enthusiastic input from partners RSPB, Swift Ecology, Hymettus Ltd, and from many local volunteers, farmers and local Natural England staff.

A moss carder, one of the rare bumblebee species already benefiting from all the new habitat in and around Dungeness.

This map shows just how much habitat has been created for bumblebees near Dungeness. Each of the small squares are 1 km x1 km, and green circles indicate new forage areas.

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Great Yellow Bumblebee does well in 2009 by Bob Dawson, Scottish Conservation Officer The great yellow bumblebee (GYB) is the UK‟s rarest bumblebee, and the main remit of my job is to try to conserve this beautiful creature for future generations to enjoy. I‟ve had a very busy year! From March, I visited the regions where GYB is still found. Over sixty people came to a series of talks held in Caithness, Sutherland and on the isles of North Uist and Lewis. We also held a number of bumblebee „safaris‟, often in association with local ranger programmes, and over seventy people attended these. My thanks to all those who helped with the walks and talks; we succeeded in seeing GYB on walks in Orkney, the Western Isles and Highland. It makes such a difference seeing this rare bee in real life!

Overall, good numbers of GYB were seen this year, the best for some time. I saw my first queens of the year on the island of Tiree, in Argyll. Moving on to the Outer Hebrides I was blown away with the numbers of bees there. This is the core population of GYB, but even here the local opinion is that there are fewer bees than before. The GYB is scarcer and more localised on the isles of Harris and Lewis. The highlight was a worker bee at Scarasta, Harris, the first record in that area for 25 years, and a direct result of reduced grazing pressure allowing just a couple of fields to flower strongly. My work has concentrated on the last mainland population: Caithness and Sutherland in the north Highland region. In Caithness, there were encouraging reports from a number of local people and the local Rangers, with Highland Council Ranger Mary Legg and Phyllida Sayles of the Caithness LBAP leading the way. Some intensive searching in July and August really

boosted our understanding of the distribution of the species, which was using some surprising habitats, including old quarries. It‟s always nice to have a „good news‟ story about bees, and our findings were snapped up by the national press! On my way back from a meeting in Golspie I dropped in at one or two places south of Wick and was absolutely delighted to find workers and a male at Occumster. I am very grateful to the landowner for permission to search the area, and in her field I saw both GYB and Red-tailed Bumblebee - a rare combination on the mainland! The photo is of a GYB on knapweed from this site - well south of any recent Caithness record - which opens up a whole new area to direct conservation efforts. Thus, we now have the “GYB Triangle” in Caithness, stretching from Reay in the west across to John O‟Groats and down to Lybster, an area about half the size of London.

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In Sutherland, the east p r o v i d e d t h e highlights. GYB were present at one of their most reliable sites, Farr Glebe at Bettyhill, from which they were mysteriously absent last year. Towards Caithness, Highland Council Ranger Paul Castle found them at two sites east of Bettyhill. These are new areas for GYB - encouraging news! Further west in Sutherland, numbers were low. Hopefully next year will be a little better in the west too...

In Orkney, the adoption of a „Birds & Bees‟ mix in the Scottish Rural Development Programme agri-environment scheme has proven very attractive for bumblebees. This was a mix that emerged from work by local enthusiast Dick Matson, RSPB and Richard Shearer, a local seed merchant. It combines a component that provides seed for birds such as the twite, and nectar and pollen sources for bees. This particular mix used the North American plant Phacelia tanacetifolia, from which GYB collect pollen and nectar. In addition, and in partnership, we are trialling a complementary mix which includes red

clover. The mixes will flower fully next year, but at least one plot has already received a visit from a GYB! You can follow the progress of this and other w o r k o n m y b l o g : h t t p : / /www.bumblebeeconservat ion.org/bobs_blog.html We have continued to work with our conservation partners during the year, particularly under the banner of the Species Action Framework (SAF), a Scottish Government initiative that identified a small number of species, including the GYB, for further work. The work of the Trust neatly dovetails with the planned SAF work. Our thanks

to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Scottish Natural Heritage for supporting our work. Hopefully, together, we can ensure a future for this lovely beast.

On mainland Scotland, in Sutherland, GYB are clinging on along the coast, using flowery cliff-tops and slopes, and dune systems.

An unexpected appearance by Betty (aka Erica) the Giant Bee at Orkney County Show, Kirkwall