18 Saturday Mar 2023
I’ve seen a couple of Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) but didn’t manage to get photos of those, so I was delighted yesterday to find a Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius), which was so busy feasting on the pollen of willow catkins that it stayed still for some pics.
31 Wednesday Aug 2022
Posted in insects
Tags
Bombus lapidarius, Bombus pascuorum, British bees, British bumblebees, Common carder bee, male Red-tailed bumblebee, Red-tailed bumblebee
As our hot dry summer draws to a close, flowers are in short supply so, sometimes, hungry critters just have to share. Here, a male Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius), left, shares with a Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum). (Yes, I know the Red-tailed doesn’t actually have a red tail and it certainly doesn’t look like the images I had been searching through when trying to put a name to it, but my friendly local Twitter expert tells me ‘males get sun bleached rather quickly’ and assures me this identification is correct. This is precisely why I don’t really ‘do’ bees!)
07 Monday Mar 2022
During Saturday’s walk I was delighted to spot my first Red-tailed (Bombus lapidarius) and Tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum) of the year. The only food source in a 20-square-metre area (except for a few daisies on a patch of grass) was a flowering Mahonia bush, which had attracted not only those two bumblebees but also a Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), as well as several species of fly, bee and hoverfly. It just showed how important flowers are for these early emerging insects.
26 Saturday Feb 2022
Not having been out walking for 12 days until yesterday means my first Springtime sightings are probably a bit behind many people’s. Still, it was an absolute delight yesterday to hear, three times, the buzzing of a bumblebee, and to watch this queen Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) searching amongst the low vegetation for a place – perhaps the abandoned burrow of a vole or shrew – to create a nest for her first brood of the year.
09 Thursday Sep 2021
Posted in insects, wildflowers
Tags
British bumblebees, Buff-tailed bumblebee, bumblebees, bumblees snoozing on flowers, Common carder bee
On grey and gloomy autumn days, it’s always cheering to see the bumblebees still out and about, even if sometimes they’re actually snoozing on their chosen flowers.
08 Sunday Aug 2021
Posted in insects, plants, wildflowers
Tags
British bumblebees, British wildflowers, Buff-tailed bumblebee, bumblee and thistle, Carline thistle
Carline thistles may look dry and unappetising but, as you can see from the enthusiastic feeding of this Buff-tailed bumblebee, they are in fact nectar rich, and favourites not only of bees but also of many species of butterflies.
22 Monday Mar 2021
At this time of year the ornamental cherry tree outside my flat is awash with blossom, of a warm white shade flushed with the merest tinge of pink.
It looks glorious, especially on sunny days, and, at a time when there are few flowers in bloom, it’s a magnet for newly emerging, hungry insects of the flying kind.
Yesterday, as well as a few Honey bees, I spotted half a dozen, all Buff-tailed, bumblebees doddering from one flower to the next, before lurching haphazardly to the next branch, dislodging the delicate petals as they passed.
29 Sunday Dec 2019
Tags
Bombus hypnorum, British bumblebees, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Tree bumblebee, winter bumblebee sighting
I was amazed today at Cosmeston to hear a buzzing sound and then watch this bumblebee fly slowly past, to settle on the trunk of a nearby tree. It’s a Tree bumblebee, I think, Bombus hypnorum, a species that usually emerges from its winter sleep in March.
Yesterday I saw a Red admiral butterfly, and now today this bumblebee. It just shows how mild our winter weather has been so far.
27 Tuesday Mar 2018
Tags
Bombus lapidarius, British bumblebees, bumblebee, pollinators, Red-tailed bumblebee, signs of spring, willow catkin, willow flower
Isn’t she beautiful? While out walking in a local park I spotted this queen Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) enjoying the pollen of a newly opened willow flower … and I smiled all the way home.
earthstar 
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