This morning we learned how to survey bumblebees for the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme run by The Bumblebee Conservation Trust https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org. The Cluster survey involves walking a 1km ‘transect’ every week for 6 weeks, which is easy enough. The tricky bit is identifying the species of bumblebee. Luckily we have some very willing volunteers helping out.
The walk this morning, which was more to learn the methodology of the survey was cool with sunny intervals. Add that to the fact that it’s been a cold spring with a lot less flowers than usual, it wasn’t a surprise that we saw few bees. Common carder, garden and buff-tailed/white-tailed were seen though.
Surveying starts properly in June, so what’s seen then will be posted on here.
The Heggs-Castle Renaturing Project 