The Lost Words

The postman delivered something very beautiful today. A book. But not just any old book. This book just happens to be one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen. A 'keep forever' book.

The words in this magical book are themselves works of art. Inspired words, beautiful words, words with purpose that weave together other familiar but strangely endangered words; like Acorn, Conker and Otter.

The illustrations are breathtakingly beautiful; page after page of images you can't help tracing with your fingers, as though this will somehow imprint them in your mind... like a visual mantra you can summon up whenever you have need of 'beauty'. The otters are imprinted in my mind already. I can see them when I close my eyes.

The book is 'The Lost Words' - written by Robert Macfarlane and illustrated by Jackie Morris. It is for children of all ages - from 1 - 101

More about The Lost Words and the story behind the need for it to be written, here https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/on-writing/cover-story/2017/jul/designing-the-lost-words/ 

Thank you Robert and Jackie for championing these words - and the creatures and plants they conjure up

Snail shell bees

Another little excerpt from my book......

 It’s raining. This means my planned excursion to Salisbury Plain to search for the snail shell bee Osmia spinulosa would most likely be quite fruitless, so I’ve decided to stay at home and write about her instead....

I first came across this little solitary bee a few years ago whilst living in West Malvern, Worcestershire. By that time I had begun to take photographs of pretty much anything ant-sized and upwards that visited my tiny patio garden on the side of the hill - and had already uploaded a few thousand images of two, four, six and eight legged creatures to a file on my lap-top titled ‘unidentified garden visitors’. Many of my garden visitors will remain forever unlabelled in that file, but when I enlarged the photograph I took of this particular bee, I could tell from her ‘jizz’ (one of my new favourite words) that she must be an Osmia species... and I was quite excited when I realised she wasn’t one I already knew. She was certainly not one of my regular bee hotel nesters. 

As well as being excited by the possibility of a new bee to add to my species list, I was also struck by the fact that my hitherto almost-non-existent ID skills had just notched up a level; i.e.  I was able to place this bee into a ‘genus’ before going the BWARS (Bees, wasps & ants recording society) site rather than after hours of trawling through it searching for a visual match or posting my photograph on twitter to ask for help. I cannot tell you how empowering this felt.

Once I had decided she was an Osmia species, it was relatively easy to pin-point exactly which. Many of our solitary bee species are impossible to tell apart without a microscope, but this one had unusual blue/green/ eyes so I was able to identify her very quickly.

So, not only was this a new bee (for me) but I had also managed to identify her accurately (and entirely by myself) as Osmia spinulosa - the Spined Mason-bee. On their own, these two happenings were worthy of celebration, but when I started to read and watch videos about her nesting behaviour, I was close to bursting with joy! I’d been watching other Osmia species since early April, as they flew back and forth to my bee hotels carrying balls of mud or chewed up leaf mastic with their mouthparts - or with the undersides of their abdomens caked in bright yellow/orange pollen - and was already entranced by their nesting behaviour. 

But this bee doesn't lay her eggs in bee hotels, she lays them in old snail shells. A bee who makes her nest in snail shells… how exciting is that? And how in the world had I never come across her before?!

More about these, and other snail shell nesting bees in my book, but for anyone who has come to this blog searching for information about snail shell bees, please see Steven Falk's amazing flickr pages which are full of photographs and information....

Osmia spinulosa (Spined mason bee)
Osmia bicolor (Red tailed mason bee)

Osmia aurulenta (Gold-fringed mason bee)

B x

Of Snowdrops and Hairy-footed Flower Bees

Male Hairy-footed Flower Bee

It’s February 17^th and I’ve just seen my first Hairy-footed flower bee of the year. She’s foraging amongst the snowdrops in the gardens where my husband, Rob, works, and I can barely contain my excitement. I watch her darting from flower to flower, her proboscis extended as she sups the nectar provided by these earliest of blooms. I am enthralled. Her small black furry body emits the high-pitched buzz so typical of this species, that first alerted me to her presence in the flowerbed - and I am smitten, all over again, by this charming little bee.

I can’t believe I don’t have my camera with me! I have never before seen a Hairy-footed flower bee foraging on a snowdrop and would so love to have a photograph to accompany my record when I submit it to BWARS (Bees, Wasps, Ants Recording Society) later today. I wonder if mine will be the first sighting this year, or perhaps even the earliest sighting ever....?

The Hairy-footed flower bee’s scientific name ‘Anthophora plumipes’ (plumipes meaning ‘feather-footed’) sounds, to me, almost as beautiful as her common name, although the ‘plumipes’ part only really applies to the male of the species. The male’s middle legs are elongated and adorned with long feathery hairs, which he uses to transfer secretions from his abdominal glands to the female’s antennae whilst he mates with her. It looks like he’s covering her eyes with his legs whilst he does this.  I have no idea what might be the significance of this transfer of secretions during mating; it is but one of many mysteries I have yet to unravel in my on-going quest to understand more about the fascinating and beguiling world of bees. 

Unusual amongst our British bee species, male and female Hairy-footed Flower bees are quite different to each other in appearance, although both are fairly easy to recognise and identify in their own right, even for complete beginners.  Hairy-footed females are jet black all over, with bright yellow/orange pollen brushes on their hind legs, whilst males of the species are golden-brown in colour (fading to a paler colour as they spend more time in the sun) with pale yellow faces and, of course, very beautiful hairy legs.

Although Hairy-footed flower bees are solitary species, they are often mistakenly identified as bumblebees... and with their rotund body shape and complete covering of hair this is hardly surprising. However when they first emerge in early spring there should be less confusion, for the only bumblebees on the wing at that time of year are the enormous queens who have just emerged from hibernation.  Compared to these huge bumblebee queens, Hairy-footed flower bees are actually quite small. 

Colour, shape and size aside, the easiest way to recognise this bee - and to tell it apart from other bees - is undoubtedly by its behaviour. No other species of bee (apart from other related Flower bee species) behaves, forages or sounds quite like the Hairy-footed flower bee. Zipping back and forth from flower to flower, with such speed and purpose that you can barely keep your eye on them, and then hovering for a few seconds in the air like miniature humming birds as they probe for nectar and pollen with their long pointed proboscises; their behaviour really is most distinctive and almost un bee-like. Add to this their highly pitched ‘buzz’ and the male’s territorial tendencies, and there’s no mistaking a Hairy-footed flower bee when you meet one....

Female Hairy-footed Flower Bee

Bees: where to begin?

A few more passages from the opening chapter of the book I'm writing....






Bees. Where to begin….?

Given the enormity of our reliance upon bees as pollinators of human food crops, it beggars belief that we (by we, I mean you and I; not the scientists who study insects) know so little about them. Mention the word bee to most people, and images of bee hives, beekeepers and honey are the most likely things that will spring to their minds. However if I were to give the same people a sheet of paper and some coloured pencils and ask them to draw me a bee, most of them would draw something shaped a little like a rugby ball with striped yellow, white and black bands to which they might attach a head, six legs, two antennae and a pair (or two) of wings; something that looks, essentially, like a bumblebee.

So there is clearly a little confusion as to what, exactly, a bee is.

In actual fact, Planet Earth is home to at least 20,000 different species of bee. This is quite a staggering figure; one which surprises most people when they first hear it, especially if they have previously only been aware of the existence of honeybees and bumblebees.  Of all these different species, only 7 are honeybees, around 250 bumblebees and the rest are solitary bees. (N.B. of the so called 'solitary' bees, some groups actually have social structures. I have not yet fully understood the varying degrees of sociality amongst these groups; it's a complex subject and one I'm still trying to get my head around)

Bees are incredible in so many ways, that I will barely manage to scratch the surface of their existence in this book. My aim is simply to introduce you to certain aspects of their world; a world which, for the last decade or so, has filled me with ever increasing wonder and joy as I have immersed myself in watching, listening and tuning in to the bees (and other wild creatures) that I come across in my garden and on my travels around the UK. By sharing the knowledge I have gained, together with my observations, understandings and realisations, I hope to inspire you, too, to fall in love with these extraordinary little beings… or at least to see them in a different light and want to find out more about them.

Most of us are aware that bees are important pollinators, but far from being in awe of the fact that something so tiny is capable of achieving something so extraordinary i.e. pollination.... we tend instead to take this gift (or service as it is so sadly referred to these days by economists) very much for granted. I use the word ‘gift’ with consideration and awareness of the fact that a gift is usually something that has been given with intent to a recipient. As bees and other pollinators go about their daily business of foraging for pollen, their aim is of course to collect as much as possible to take back to their nest to feed, or provide for, the next generation of their species. Bees are no more setting out to ‘gift’ us their services than they are setting out to ‘pollinate’ the plants they visit, but the result, in my eyes, is one of the most wonderful gifts that nature bestows upon mankind, and one without which we simply would not survive.....

So, ‘Bees pollinate flowering plants’. This we know. But how exactly do they achieve this? How does a bee, newly emerged from its brood cell or cocoon, recognise that plants provide it with food, or which flowers contain the best sources of pollen and nectar? Which bees (or which other species of pollinating animal for that matter) pollinate which plants? How do they know which flowers have already been worked and which still contain rewards? How do they access the more complexly structured flowers? How do they extract pollen and nectar? How does the plant make sure that pollination actually takes place? How do bees carry pollen back to their nests? How do they find the same plant again? How do they communicate (do they communicate?) this information to other bees? How do they use the pollen……? So many hows?!

The Song of the Stream

Here are a few passages from the book I'm writing. The book is mostly about bees, but this little piece is about birdsong and the sound of water; written whilst I was staying away from home on a bee identification workshop. Work in progress...

Chapter 6: The song of the stream

Sunday 21st May 4.35am

I slept last night in a tiny little thatched cabin at the top of a garden somewhere in Oxfordshire. The cabin is nestled beneath mature trees in a semi-wild area of the garden and I have just woken to (or been woken by) the local dawn chorus. The room is warm so I step out of bed and open the door; now I can also hear the stream below as it makes its way through what I believe used to be a watercress bed.  It’s earlier than I’d like to be awake, but what a way to start the day.

Unlike the birds, the stream has not been to sleep, and it too has a song to sing. How can I describe the song of the stream? Simultaneously complex yet simple; 'of the moment' whilst also in continuous motion, it brings images to my mind of a never ending carnival procession. Depending on when, where and how you tune in, you either catch the full flow of its journey, or a little snap shot that can only be heard here, now, in this very spot where I am sitting. It is the song of a traveller. Does that make sense? I’m not sure, but know I want to explore this idea further.

I open the door wider. There is a lull in the birdsong now so I am better able to tune in to the stream. There must be some kind of fall because I can hear the sound of water cascading over rocks. It is so very soothing in its constancy; moving, perhaps dancing, with no sense of urgency. ‘Less haste, more speed.’ So reassuring. Almost meditative. I can tune in and out at will.

I wonder, if I were to record the sound for a few minutes now - and then again later - would I be able to tell the difference? Does it sound the same in the middle of the night as it does in the middle of the day? In the middle of winter as the middle of summer? Rainfall and wind speed and direction will surely make a difference; in the same way that an orchestra playing the same tune with fewer (or more) violins - or under different conductors - would sound different. The song of the stream is probably softened at this time of year by the leaves in the trees. I wonder how it would sound in mid-winter when the trees are bare.

I love the sound of living water and wish I could live forevermore in a place where I might go to sleep and wake up to this sound.

I'm listening to the birdsong again now and recognise it from yesterday morning. Same birds, singing in the same trees at the same time. But I don’t know who they are. I sing along with a few of them, trying to memorise the sequences and cadences in the hope I’ll be able to find and identify them on the RSPB website when I get back home this evening. I know what they’re ‘not’, which is at least a start. I can confidently say they are not chiffchaff or willow warbler, nor are they robin, blackbird, goldfinch, greenfinch, song thrush, sparrow or starling. Or cuckoo. My birdsong recognition skills are extremely basic, but I delight in those that I do know. I have a similar feeling, each time I recognise a bird by its song, to the feeling I experience when I overhear someone speaking in a foreign language and realise I understand what they’re saying. It’s the beginning of a connection. 

Of course the birds neither know nor care that I have recognised them, but I know it; and somehow, at that moment of knowing, I feel a great sense of belonging. It is this sense of belonging that I long for beyond all other longings, for it brings with it a sense of peace so deep and profound that I find I have no need of, or interest in, the trappings and distractions of everyday life....

Brigit x

P.S. The little cabin I've written about here was in the village of Ashbury in Oxfordshire. I found it on Airbnb and really enjoyed my short stay there. Thank you Joseph!

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/14643975

'Help... there's a swarm of bees in my bird box!'

I'm getting LOADS of messages and emails this week from people who have noticed 'Swarms of bees in bird boxes'..... also under the eaves of houses and other unexpected places.

These will be Tree bumblebees Bombus hypnorum.

Please don't call out the pest control people!!! The nest has already been there, possibly unnoticed, for at least a few months. The reason for the sudden increased activity is that this is the time of year bumblebee colonies produces new daughter queens. The local males (who have already left their own nests) become very excited and congregate outside the nests where new queens are about to emerge.... in the hope that they can mate with them.

The males dance frantically around the outside of the nest (which is very often in an old bird box, a hollow tree, or under the eves of a house) giving the appearance of a swarm.

Don't worry; this will not last long. It just means the colony has been successful and is now approaching the end of its life-cycle.

The new queens will soon leave the nest, mate, stock up on pollen and nectar, and go into hibernation till early next spring. The old queen, together with all the remaining workers and the males will not survive for longer than a few more weeks.

Tree  bumblebees are the ultimate opportunists. I have seen the nesting in old canons, tumble dryer outlets and letter boxes. I also watched a nest thrive last year in a muck spreader that a local farmer was still using to spread muck at least 3 times weekly. He got stung a couple of times whilst attaching it to his tractor, but took it on the chin (literally) and generously decided not to evict them

So, enjoy and celebrate the fact that you have provided a home for these bumblebees!

A final word of caution. The female guard bees are on high alert during this period and a little more defensive in their behaviour than usual, so stay away from the nest whilst the males are dancing outside.... and be aware that they seem to become especially defensive, and occasionally aggressive, if you use strimmers or lawnmowers nearby.

And please submit a record of your sighting here...  TREE BUMBLEBEE SIGHTINGS

Loads more excellent info about tree bumblebee nests (and how to move them if you really need to) here... Reigate Beekeepers 

Some very basic information about bees

Andrena cineraria (Ashy mining bee)

What's the first thing that springs to mind when you hear the word 'bee'? For many people this word conjures up images of beehives, honey, and people dressed in strange, white, masked outfits; i.e honeybee related images.

Yet, if I gave the same people a box of coloured pencils and asked them to draw me a bee, most would probably draw something black, yellow and white striped in the shape of a rugby ball, with a pair (or two) of wings, two antennae and six legs; basically something more akin to a bumblebee. So there is clearly a little confusion.

I thought it might help if I wrote down some very basic information to help clear up some of this confusion..........

There are over 20,000 different species of bee in the world.

7 of these are honeybees.

250 are bumblebees

The rest are solitary bees!

In the UK we have around 270 different species:

1 honeybee
24 bumblebees 
245+ solitary bees

NESTING

Honeybees and bumblebees are 'social' bees - which means they live together in colonies comprising a queen, female workers, and males. They communicate and co-operate.

There are tens of thousands of worker bees in a honeybee colony, but only around 50 - 400 in a bumblebee colony.

With social bees (i.e. honeybees and bumblebees) all the 'worker bees' are female. The males are produced at specific times of the life-cycle for the sole purpose of mating.

                                                        

Solitary bees, on the other hand, do not have 'queens' or 'workers', nor (with one or two exceptions) do they share their nests with other solitary bees. This is why they are called 'solitary'. They do, however, often nests alongside each other. When you see lots of solitary bees nesting in the same area you are seeing an 'aggregation' not a 'colony'.

After mating, female solitary bees make their nests. They do this either by excavating tunnels in the ground (ground nesting) or using pre-existing cavities in walls, trees, etc (cavity nesting). Cavity nesting solitary bees are opportunists and will also nest in man-made locations such as hose pipes, wind chimes, key-holes and teapot spouts! Some species specialise in empty snail shells. A few solitary bee species have become adept at burrowing into rotten wood or pithy plant stems.

Whatever the preferred nest site, each female provisions a number of individual cells with sufficient pollen for larvae to feed on when they hatch. She then lays an egg alongside each lump of pollen, seals each cell (and then the nest), and dies before her young complete their life cycles to become adult bees. These new adult bees remain in hibernation in their nests throughout autumn and winter... and emerge the following year in spring or summer to start their life cycle all over again.

                                                            

HONEY

Only honeybees make honey, which they make out of nectar collected from flowers. Honeybees turn the nectar into honey to store over winter, so the colony has something to feed on whilst it's too cold to forage and flowers are scarce.

Other bee species also collect nectar, but do not turn it into honey. They just use it as an energy drink.

OVER WINTERING COLONIES

Unlike honeybee colonies, bumblebee colonies do not overwinter. Each bumblebee colony produces males and new daughter queens in the summer (at different times depending on the species). These new queens mate and then go into hibernation till next spring. The old queen, together with all the female workers and the males, die before winter. That is the end of this nest. So, in a way, you could say honeybee colonies are 'perennials' and bumblebees colonies are 'annuals'.

                                                             

POLLEN COLLECTING

As well as collecting nectar, bees also collect pollen, which they use to feed their young. Different species collect their pollen in different ways.....

Social bees (honeybees and bumblebees) collect it in pollen baskets on their hind legs. They pack the pollen into these baskets very neatly, so don't drop much off on their way home.

Solitary bees, however, collect pollen on stiff branched hairs, either under their abdomen (cavity nesting species) or on their legs (ground nesting species). It is not moistened or packed down, which means lots of this pollen drops off on the other flowers they visit as they make their way home. This makes them extremely good pollinators.

                                                               

STINGS
Only female bees have a sting. Male bees do not. If a honeybee worker stings you, she dies. If bumblebees sting (which they very rarely do) they will not die. This is because the honeybee sting is barbed, whereas the bumblebee sting is more like a needle. Apart from a few exceptions, solitary bee stings are mostly redundant and incapable of even piercing the human skin.

More on stings here -  Which bees sting and which bees don't? 

                                                                

The most important thing of all is that we provide food and habitat for ALL of these species. They all pollinate different plants, in different ways, at different times of the year, and in different habitats. DIVERSITY is the key! It is equally important that we provide for other pollinating insects like butterflies, moths, hoverflies, beetles, wasps and flies.

Photos below are of a honeybee, bumblebee, cavity nesting solitary bee and ground nesting bee.... showing the different ways they collect their pollen.

Apis mellifera (Honeybee)

Bombus terrestris (Buff-tailed bumblebee)

Megachile centuncularis (Patchwork leafcutter bee)

Halictus rubicundus (Orange-legged Furrow-bee)

If I Could Be A Dream

I wish I could be a 'dream'. If I could, I would visit our misguided leaders, policy makers and those who run the banks and multinational corporations, in their sleep. I would fill their troubled heads with images, sounds and smells of meadows and verges full of wild flowers, butterflies, crickets and bees; sunshine, rain and clouds; breezes and howling winds, muddy puddles, brooks, rivers, and oceans; dandelion clocks and daisy chains; ancient woodlands and wild forests; home made bread, cake and compost; children and people of all races creeds and colours playing together and holding hands; freshly picked runner beans and tomatoes that have been grown outside and pollinated by local native bumblebees; healthy soil; arts and artists; rainbow coloured mosses and pale green lichen; song birds and slow worms; and lots and lots of glow worms; mountain tops and mole hills; Sunday afternoon walks and family get togethers from the days before shops were open every day of the week and Sundays truly were a day of rest; people playing music in local parks without a licence; pine martins, beavers, wolves and otters; open doors; raindrops caught in spiders webs; kindness; full moons and starlit skies; the feel of walking bare foot on wet grass; laughter; abundance for everyone; bridges and open arms; the sound of curlews on the Yorkshire moors; deliciously crisp but misshapen apples; fresh, unpolluted air and fresh, unpolluted (free) water; hedgerows brimming with life; more bees, butterflies, moths and crickets; and with so many more good, healthy, natural, magical, enchanting and beautiful things….. that they would not be able to resist falling head-over-heels in love with this amazing planet we live on. Then, they would wake up (in more than just one sense) and instead of their minds being full of fear, greed, hate and noise.... they would be full of love, peace, joy and stillness. They would abandon their destructive elitist policies, decisions, rules and regulations to reflect their new found 'earth, people and wildlife friendly' views.

This dream would be my gift to ALL those who have lost touch with the natural world. 

Wishing and hoping that peace, love, light and good old fashioned common sense will prevail

xxx

A very simple way to help wildlife...

Spoon billed sandpiper. 200 breeding pairs left in the world

Wildlife documentaries are being viewed and talked about by more people than ever before. We love them.

We love wildlife!

Yet this same wildlife that we love to watch and learn about on TVs or other devices is suffering unprecedented declines. We watch, in awe of the magnificent and diverse creatures we share this planet with, then we go shopping and buy food and products that contribute directly to their decline.

I could write a list of all the things we buy that cause damage, directly and indirectly, to the planet's ecosystems (and to human beings less fortunate than ourselves) but I'd be here all day. Things that contain palm oil, are wrapped in plastic, or have been grown using pesticides spring to mind to start with.

The bottom line is that we have the intelligence and the technical backup to search for information.... and we have the freedom of choice to make decisions and changes. If we all made a few changes and spent the money we have in our pockets in a more wildlife/human friendly way we would collectively make a difference.

Planting more flowers for pollinators, leaving wild areas in our gardens for wildlife, signing petitions, planting trees etc are all vitally important, but if we don't simultaneously look at what we buy and where/how we spend our money, then this is all for nothing.

Children get this when it is explained to them. Adults should too.

I know it is not easy to make changes and that the more ethical and environmentally sound choices are often more expensive. But that doesn't men we shouldn't at least try.

Do please watch the beautiful and powerful series China: Between Clouds and Dreams - it says it all!

x

Non-native invasive species. Friends or foe?

I've been thinking a great deal over the last few years about 'non-native invasive species' and wondering whether some might actually be more 'friend' than 'foe'.

Species like the Asian hornet are clearly a great threat to diversity because if they establish a foothold in the UK, they have the potential to wreak havoc on our bee population which, as well as being a concern in its own right, will of course have a knock on effect on the plants our native bees currently pollinate and the eco systems these plants support.

But what about other recent arrivals? What about Ivy bees and Tree bumblebees? Unlike the Asian hornet these species are not 'predators' nor have they arrived via human agency. But could they be competing with our existing population of bees (and other insects) for foraging and habitat? Do we know yet if this is the case? Does it matter? If not, why not? Maybe these and other new species arriving from Northern Europe will prove better equipped to deal with an ever changing landscape and climate that our existing bee species might struggle with in the future. 

And then there's Himalayan balsam. This plant is vilified by most, but having established itself is now providing much needed late season nectar and pollen for our native pollinators. Maybe, in time, it will turn out to have other benefits that we don't yet know about? Perhaps it will be better able to cope with climate change, rising temperatures and flooding than some of our native plants? And what would be the consequences to the eco systems it now helps to support if we were to pull it all up and completely eliminate it? I don't know the answers to these questions, but can't help wondering.

Food for thought.... and as an aside, I think we would do well to remember that we, the human race, cause more damage to biodiversity than all the invasive plants put together. When human beings talk about 'invasive species', the expression 'pots and kettles' springs to mind.

Against this backdrop of our (innate?) fear of non native invasive species taking over our countryside, is the current trend for more and more people to keep honeybees in towns and cities. I find myself unable to reconcile the fear of the former with the acceptance and encouragement of the latter.  Do those who set up new hives plant more pollen and nectar rich plants to help sustain their increasing honeybee populations? If not, and if natural resources are limited, do these hives then need to be routinely fed on sugar water over winter? And how do native bumblebees, solitary bees and other pollinators cope when tens of thousands of extra (managed) honeybees are suddenly introduced to an area where the existing floral resources are already depleted?

I ask these last questions (about bees) because where I live in Shaftesbury, North Dorset, I have seen a huge increase in the number of honeybee hive being kept by local beekeepers over the last couple of years. Where these colonies are at their most dense I am now noticing that bumblebees are conspicuous by their absence on sedum and other plants popular with the honeybees, whereas further out of Shaftesbury, in surrounding villages where there are not so many beehives, the sedum, at least, is covered in bumblebees and butterflies in the autumn. 

So many questions, but not many answers.  On balance, I have to say I am no longer sure what to think, per se, about non-native invasive species.... especially when I am noticing, first hand, our native wild bees being outcompeted on some flowering plants by the increase in popularity for keeping honeybees.

If you are interested in exploring these questions further, you might like to read The New Wild by Fred Pearce. A very thought provoking book!

Also, check out this post on Biff Vernon's Blogspot.

With many thanks to twitter friend @dolly_and_dj for allowing me to use her beautiful photograph x

P.S. I should add (in case it appears that I am picking on beekeepers) that my partner and I have a few hives ourselves and are fortunate enough to be able to keep our bees out of town in an area where there are very few other beekeepers.

Have you seen this bee?!

Ivy bee Colletes hederae

It's Sunday 9th October. The sky is blue, the sun is shining and the Ivy is in full flower.

Common Ivy Hedera helix provides an abundance of autumn pollen and nectar for bees and other pollinators. So sweet and powerful is its scent that you can usually locate flowering ivy by smell alone, but if your sense of smell fails you, just close your eyes and listen.... for, on a day like this, it is literally alive with the buzzing and humming of insects.

If you find a patch of flowering ivy, perhaps you might consider taking a little time out to stop and look more closely at the myriad insect species feasting upon its rewards. On a warm day like this you are likely to see honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies, wasps, flies, hoverflies AND - depending on where in the country you live - Ivy bees

Ivy bees Colletes hederae are relatively new to the UK. They were first recorded in Dorset in the early 2000's, but have since been recorded in other southern counties. They are now expanding their range north and have, this week, been recorded for the first time in Heysham, Lancashire.

Ivy bees are 'solitary bees'. They do not live in social colonies like honey bees or bumblebees, but nest alongside each other in large aggregations, usually in banks of compacted sandy soil.

BWARS (Bees, Wasps & Ants recording Society) are mapping and monitoring the spread of this bee, but need our help to do this. All they ask, is that you take photos of any Ivy bees you see and submit them on line to the BWARS mapping project or on iRecord . Either will do.

I shall add a couple of photos below of other insects that people often mistake for Ivy bees, but if you're still not sure, upload your photo to iRecord and someone in the know will help you identify it.

iRecord is SO worth signing up to anyway, because it is a wonderful way to manage all your wildlife sightings.

So, have an adventure! Make some sandwiches, dig out a flask, get your walking boots on, stick your camera in your bag and become a citizen scientist!  Of course you may have ivy growing and flowering in your back garden, in which case I suggest you grab a cup of tea and a deck chair instead of your walking boots and rucksack. Either way, today might be the day you find and identify your first Ivy.... and if you live up North you might just be the first to record an Ivy bee in your neck of the woods.

Here's the link for iRecord again - iRecord

A fact sheet about Ivy bees - Fact sheet

Submit sightings here - BWARS mapping project

And finally, some photographs of insects that are NOT Ivy bees.....

N.B You can easily tell the wasps apart because they are predominantly yellow, but hoverflies can sometimes be quite confusing. The hoverfly in the photo below behaves for all the world as though it were a bee, but check out its large 'fly eyes' and short antennae and you will see they are very different to those of a bee. Bees have more oval shaped eyes and long antennae.

If it is carrying pollen on its legs then it is definitely either a honeybee, a bumblebee or a solitary bee. Other insects do not carry pollen. However, if it's not carrying pollen it could still be a bee because bees also forage for nectar.

Honey bee Apis mellifera

Bumblebee Bombus terrestris photo by Gordon England 

Hoverfly Eristalis pertinax

Common wasp Vespula vulgaris

Asian Hornets and Human Beings: what do they have in common?

Asian hornet Vespa velutina (Image from Wildlife Trusts)

I've been thinking a great deal about the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, which could wreak havoc on honeybees and native wild bees in the UK if left unchecked.

For those who are unaware, an Asian hornet nest was found recently near Tetbury, Gloucestershire. It has now been destroyed; hopefully before any new queens had a chance to emerge and disperse.

The discovery of this non-native invasive species has understandably caused great alarm and concern- especially amongst the beekeeping community- and the response from the authorities has been to act swiftly to try and prevent this species from colonising.

None of the responses in the mainstream media or social media to the potential invasion of the Asian hornet surprise me. Indeed most have been entirely appropriate. However they have left me wondering what it is in human beings that make us (seemingly) oblivious to our own impact on the natural world; or at least unwilling to do what is needed to check that impact.  

The damage to native eco systems caused by non-native invasive species - no matter how serious and how huge - pales into insignificance compared with the damage we, as a race, cause to the planet as a whole.

If there is a higher intelligence out there, watching our progress as we explore space and other planets, I should think they are probably on red alert by now. I can just imagine the headlines if we ever managed to colonise one of these planets.....

"Alert! Human colony found on planet xMy$7z! Individuals and groups of this (highly intelligent and social) species have been spotted building structures on the mountains above &^^^%. Humans vary in temperament. Some forms are mild, respectful, thoughtful and gentle; wishing only to share our resources and work alongside local native inhabitants for the greater good of the whole. These forms may not pose a threat and could even contribute and add ecological value to the existing community of flora and fauna. Other forms however can be extremely aggressive, demanding and controlling, even when unprovoked.

Collectively this species poses one of the biggest threats in the solar system to an unprotected planet. Their voraciousness knows no bounds. They have already colonised and destroyed Planet Earth. Approach with care and please notify the intergalactic authorities if you see one of these individuals or groups in your zone. Etc, etc....."

An interesting and balanced article about the Asian hornet from a beekeeper in France who has first hand experience of this species - Asian Hornet

Useful identification guide here - Wildlife Trusts: Asian hornet

RIVERS OF FLOWERS!

There are around 352,000 known species of flowering plant on this planet and around 87% of these are pollinated by insects and other animal pollinators.

Animal pollinators include 200,000 different species of birds, beetles, bees, moths, bats, flies, hover-flies, wasps, butterflies and small mammals.

The mutualistic relationship between these flowering plants and their pollinators has been evolving for over 100,000 million years, during which time both plant and pollinator have adapted and developed physical and behavioural characteristics so that each is now mutually dependent upon the other.

Fortunately it is rare for one plant to be reliant upon just one pollinator (and vica versa) - but there is a limit to how many individual plants or pollinators you remove from an eco system before that entire eco-system collapses.

As most of the planet's eco-systems rely upon the interaction between plant and pollinator for their survival - it is of paramount importance that we do everything we can to maintain this delicate balance.

Bees and other pollinators are not only important for their value as pollinators of food for human beings. Their importance stretches WAY beyond this! For instance.....when we lose the wildflowers that provide seeds for small farmland birds we lose those farmland birds.

Also, bees need the wild plants that they have co-evolved with to sustain them with pollen and nectar during times when the mono crops that now cover most of our countryside are not flowering.

From a human-centric point of view, we cannot rely on limited amount of monoculture crops to feed the world. We need to maintain biodiversity, because without it we will spiral into an extinction vortex.

All life in interconnected and pollinators need flowers - need pollinators - need flowers - need pollinators. It's very simple really.......

We need to plant  RIVERS OF FLOWERS !!!

Remember to source seeds and plants that have been grown organically and without using peat.

Try  Caves Folly  http://peatfreeplants.org.uk/ or Bee Happy Plants https://beehappyplants.co.uk/

It's not just about bees.....

Looking back through my blog posts and social media feeds, it is obvious that I write and talk a great deal about bees; their importance as pollinators; their beauty; the fascinating relationship they have with flowering plants; the differences between species; reasons for their decline (pesticides, habitat loss, climate change etc); and how we can help them survive.

Despite how it may appear on the surface though, these issues and the concerns they raise are neither as insular nor are they as 'bee-centric' as they seem. In fact, the issues affecting bees are simultaneously affecting all life on earth. Here are a few examples.....

1. At the same time that scientific advice and research supporting a call for a ban on neonicotinoid pesticides is often ignored or buried, information and research addressing myriad other issues is also ignored and buried. 

2. Pesticides (including insecticides, fungicides and herbicides) don't only harm bees. They harm other wildlife and, of course, human beings. They do this directly and indirectly.

3. Habitat loss and intensive agriculture do not just affect bees. They affect all other wildlife and are causing loss of biodiversity on a catastrophic scale.

4. As we continue to lose bee populations/species we will simultaneously continue to lose the plants rely upon them for pollination. This, in turn, will bring about the loss of more wild flowers, farmland birds, small mammals and, ultimately, the collapse of entire eco-systems.

5. Whilst multinational agrochemical corporations like Bayer & Syngenta continue to manufacture toxic bee killing chemicals like neonicotinoids, other equally powerful corporations like Monsanto, Dupont, BASF and Dow Chemical are manufacturing similarly toxic and damaging substances that are gradually poisoning our planet.

6. Climate change is already causing irreversible problems for some bee species…. but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Bees are just one of the many canaries in this particular mineshaft.

7. Disease & infection in bee populations (honeybees & wild bees) is symptomatic of what is happening on a wider scale with birds, bats, amphibians, human beings etc. etc.

So, it's not just about bees. But... planting flowers for pollinators, getting to know and recognise the bees and other insects in your garden, not using pesticides, signing petitions asking our government to listen to our views on the neonicotinoid issue etc.... are all part of a far bigger picture. Those of us who campaign to raise awareness of bee decline may appear to be focussed on just one single issue, but nothing works in isolation.

Everything is interconnected and if we get it right for bees, it follows that we will get it right for ALL life on earth. Learning to fall in love with bees is just one of the many ways we can re-establish our relationship and connection with the wonderful world around us.

Vive les abeilles!

When is a bee not a bee?

If you were to read an article about lions, but the photograph accompanying it was one of a tiger, you would probably notice straight away.... and you'd be surprised. But would you notice if an article about bees were accompanied by a photograph of a hoverfly? Possibly not. However, the internet is awash with wonderful, well researched, articles about bees that have been illustrated with photographs of hoverflies. In fact it's not just internet articles that get this wrong; one of the best reference books on the world's native bee species sports an image of a hoverfly on its front cover. Christopher O'toole and Anthony Raw must have been dismayed when the first edition of their wonderfully informative book hit the book shops in this guise!

So why do certain hoverfly species manage to dupe us into thinking they are bees.... and how can you tell the difference between a bee and a hoverfly?

A few years back, I spotted something that looked like a bumblebee and flew like a bumblebee, foraging on the flowers just outside my kitchen window. There was something unusual about it that I couldn't quite put my finger on, so I took a quick snap shot and uploaded it to my laptop for a closer look.

Lo and behold, it wasn't a bumblebee at all! Although it had been difficult to tell from a distance, I could see straight away from the image on my laptop that this insect had large prominent 'fly' eyes that almost joined together in the middle of her head and that her antennae were short and stumpy; entirely unlike a bumblebee who would have ovoid eyes on the side of her head and whose antennae would be long and beautifully elegant. On further examination I noticed she was missing the 'waspish' waist that characterises all bee species and I could also see that she only had one set of wings, rather than two.

Meredon equestris - photo Ed Phillips

I was most surprised. For all the world this creature had looked and acted like a Red tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) but clearly she wasn't. She turned out to be Merodon equestris (Narcissus fly) one of our 250 or so UK hoverflies. A fly pretending to be a bee…..


Batesian Mimicry

'Batesian mimicry' is where a harmless species has evolved to mimic the warning signals given out by a harmful species. One of the most obvious examples of this form of mimicry is where hoverflies imitate wasp coloration in an attempt to avoid predation by birds and other predators. My understanding previously however, had been that whilst bees 'flew' - hoverflies 'hovered. Not so this hoverfly! Merodon equestris has taken Batesian mimicry to its extremes. Not only does it look like a bumblebee with its long hair and chunky striped markings, but it has actually evolved in such a way that it flies and buzzes like a bumblebee too….. although of course there are differences once you know what to look for. Incredible.

To discover more about our wonderful and diverse UK hoverfly species, please check out All About Hoverflies. It contains loads of interesting information and lots of great photos and illustrations to help you identify the hoverflies visiting your garden…..

If you are interested in learning more about insects in general….or in helping prevent their decline  …..do please consider joining BUGLIFE . For as little as £2 per month you can help this charity make a real difference.

Many thanks to Ed Phillips for allowing me to use his beautiful photograph of Meredon equestris. You can find more of his wonderful photographs here - Ed Phillips Wildlife

Thank you for reading this post x

Episyrphus balteatus (marmalade hoverfly) 

Positive News

This morning I turned the radio on as usual to listen to the news.  It occurred to me that if I were a visitor from another planet listening to this news (assuming I'd been allowed to land on Planet Earth in the first place without a visa of some sort) I would probably catch the next spaceship home. I wouldn't want to stay on a planet where everything sounded so negative and sad. I am acutely aware that the world is in crisis (and I'm not just talking about the results of the referendum) but what about the positive news? Is there any? If so, why is it not being reported too?

Half an hour later and still no good news, so I turned the radio back off again and decided to make a list of my own 'news' instead.

Thursday 30th June 2016:

Life is challenging, I'm exhausted, money is tight, sad and troubling things are going on in the world and I haven't seen any leafcutter bees yet this year. The lack of leafcutters concerns me because tomorrow is the first day of July and they are usually well into their nesting season by now.

BUT..... the sun came out today(!), the Cottoneaster beneath my bedroom window is alive with the buzz of bumblebees, I can hear Sue (one of my neighbours) laughing out loud in the street outside, children are chattering away with their parents as they walk past on their way to school and the rambling roses on the cottage opposite are blooming. There is half a 'rhubarb, ginger and polenta' cake sitting on a green and white spotty plate in the kitchen, and lots of yummy leftover salads from last night in the fridge. The slugs haven't found the sunflowers or cosmos we planted in the big commercial olive tins outside our front door. We have a front door..... and a roof over our heads! I don't need to water anything because it has been raining so much recently. It's Thursday, so I can stock up with fresh local produce from the weekly market in Shaftesbury. The fact that I can chose to buy fresh local produce from the market puts the 'money is tight' thing in perspective and the walk up there will wake me up and make me feel less exhausted. Also, we have an allotment and because we remembered to net the beans in time this year (birds got them last year) we now have a crop of delicious broad beans to harvest and eat. I love and I am loved. Shaftesbury Town Council have stopped using Glyphosate in our parks and open spaces and lots of people are starting to plant bee friendly flowers in their gardens. I finally caught a glimpse of the tawny owl who has been calling every night for the last two and a half years from the trees behind our house, as he glided silently past our roof light a couple of evenings ago. It was magic. I am alive. I have friends to talk to. I can talk. And as if all that isn't enough, I  have three beautiful grandchildren who I love to the moon and back.....

I don't like all the negative news. It affects me as much as the next person and my heart breaks for those who are less fortunate than myself.  But I don't think it is healthy when the bad news completely drowns out the good, positive things that are still happening in most of our lives. No matter how small and seemingly insignificant they are.... I wish the people who produce the radio and TV news would end their broadcasting with a few more positive news items. Of course this wouldn't cancel out, negate or belittle all the bad things that are happening, but it would at least give people the motivation to want to get up in the morning.

Thank goodness for Positive News Magazine!

Sending love, strength and healing to all who need it x

P.S. The beautiful uplifting sunflower pic was taken by Olga Lipatova (thank you Chris for this information)

A New Day

I've been struggling with all the negativity and anger over the last few weeks and thinking "I'll be glad when this referendum is over and we can get back to normal."  I'm sure I'm not the only one to have expressed this sentiment, but of course very few of us, including those who voted to leave, actually expected the result we woke up to on Friday morning..... and it is clear that things are definitely not going to get back to normal; whatever 'normal' is.

But we know that nothing stays the same. It never has and it never will. Change is one of life's inevitabilities and if we look hard enough we will always find silver linings and opportunities. I have to admit it's a bit of a challenge to find many silver linings in this case, but they are most certainly there.

Silver linings come in many different guises and in this case I believe (and hope) they may come in the form of 'realisations'.

One such realisation may come from the 'powers that be' who might finally understand (realise) that they cannot continue to ignore the wishes and voices of the people. History has shown again and again that people who are ignored and trampled upon will rebel and that those who have ignored and trampled upon them will be shocked and surprised by this.  Most of us (those who live in the real world) already know that the chasm dividing the rich and the poor; the haves and have nots; the North and the South; is untenable. Our leaders, however, have become so detached from reality that they have dangerously, arrogantly and foolishly ignored the wishes and fears of the people they were elected to govern. They have forgotten how to 'listen' so they have not 'heard'. They have forgotten how to 'see' so they have not 'seen'. They have forgotten the true meaning of words like 'truth', 'honesty', 'humility', 'integrity', 'honour' and 'duty' and in isolating themselves in the bubble that is Westminster, they have completely and utterly failed the poor, the elderly, the vulnerable, the young, the sick and the environment. They have failed the relationship.

It seems to me that voting 'leave' has been the only way people have been able to express their feelings of (to put it mildly) frustration and desperation with a government that just doesn't listen. The fact that some of the most vulnerable 'leave' voters may ultimately suffer more as a result of us leaving the EU (although we don't know this will be the case for sure yet) is ironic, but the point is, by voting 'leave' their voices have finally been heard.

Maybe, just maybe this result will prove to be the wake up call our politicians so desperately need! Maybe something good will come from the leave vote. Even though it will involve the breakdown of a relationship, if may spawn a new generation of leaders who learn from the mistakes and failures of previous leaders that they cannot ignore the people they have been elected to govern.

Every day is a new day..... and new days bring with them new beginnings, new challenges and new opportunities. Ok, so we have bigger challenges today than we did yesterday, but the sun is still shining (at least today it is!) the birds are still singing, and I am/we are still alive. It's time to roll up our sleeves and move forward instead of (or as well as) looking back. We are where we are, so we will just have to speak louder and fight harder; not only for the vulnerable people who some on this island would close their doors to.... but also for the environment and the diverse and amazing wildlife we share it with. Our voices, votes and actions will count more than ever now.

Edited to add: I am not suggesting that we bypass the process of coming to terms with the changes that are yet to pan out, or that those who are more deeply affected than others (emotionally, financially or otherwise) should 'get up and get on with it'.  I am just trying to find some kind of silver lining to focus on because that is what always works best for me when a situation is extremely challenging and beyond my control.

It scares the living daylights out of me when I look at the mess our political parties are in and wonder who on earth is going to have time to put the environment and the wildlife we share this world with anywhere near the top of their agenda...... but I feel we are better equipped and able to deal with this is we can find something positive amidst all the negatives. I hope that makes sense?

x

Creating a Buzz in Shaftesbury

Pollinator Parade

We have just held our very first and highly enjoyable 'Bee & Butterfly Bonanza' in the hill-top town of Shaftesbury in North Dorset!

Our aim was to celebrate the wonderful and extraordinarily beautiful diversity of the UK's pollinators: bumblebees; solitary bees; honeybees; butterflies; moths; beetles; hoverflies etc; as well as the equally beautiful and diverse plants these insects rely upon for their survival. We wanted to use the day to provide information and inspiration to everyone who attended the event by offering a range of talks, walks and activities to help raise awareness of the enormous importance of pollinators and plants. We decided to try and make this information as colourful, interesting and accessible as possible and to pitch the event so it would appeal to all age groups and levels of interest.

One of the other things we want to achieve over a period of time, is to map all the Bee Friendly gardens and Open Spaces in the town. Local resident Bernard Ede has kindly created a landscape map for this purpose, which we started to fill in on the day and hope to add to now on an ongoing basis.

We're fortunate in Shaftesbury to have an area just off the high street that can be used for community events; although I don't think many people realise it is available to be used in this way.  Park Walk has hard standing for stalls as well as a lovely garden, much used by locals and tourists alike, with views overlooking the Blackmore Vale. The whole space is backed by the ancient walls Shaftesbury Abbey, whose beautiful gardens amidst the Abbey's ruins are full of herbs and other bee friendly plants. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect place to put on our event.

Our Bee & Butterly Bonanza was the result of a collaboration between Dorset Wildlife Trust , members of Shaftesbury Tree Group, and local residents. We worked together, collaborating and communicating in much the same way as honeybees do (minus the waggle dance!) to try and create something for the greater good of the whole. It was an absolute joy to organise this day, as at no time during the months we've been working together did any one individual stand out more than another....nor did any one individual or organisation seek to take control of, or credit for, the day. I thought it important to mention this because this is not always the way that such events come together. Maybe the chilled out organisation had something to do with the fact that we held most of our meetings in Turnbulls Deli where they serve very delicious coffee, herbal teas and cakes.....

Anyway, whatever the reason for it being a joy to work with each other on this project, the other thing that helped was the decision we made, from the very beginning, that although we would do everything we possibly could to make the event a success, none of us would lose sleep about the outcome. Of course we hoped the sun would shine and that lots of people would come and support us, but attaching so much importance to the outcome that you don't enjoy the journey and/or allow yourself to be open to last minute changes in plans is a sure recipe for sleepless nights!

We had absolutely no budget to work with, so relied completely on volunteers and donated/borrowed tables, chairs, marquees etc.... together with stall holders who supported the event for the sake of being involved rather than to make big profits.

A lovely local couple, Nick and Philippa Forrest, lent us their marquee... and members of the Tree Group kindly put it up and took it down; Dorset Wildlife Trust brought chairs for people to sit on during the talks; The Friends Meeting House lent us a few tables; Shaftesbury Country Market came along with butterfly cakes and lots of bee friendly plants for sale and my lovely friend Anne came down from Herefordshire with an amazing selection of wild plants and barely broke even because she gave so many away.

Dorset Wildlife Trust

We had cider and mead from Tim at Marshwood Cider  and Fairtrade tea and coffee from Paul McDougall's 'The Italian Connection';  Local Wildlife artist and author Sara Westaway designed some beautiful colouring in sheets for children to take away and Elizabeth Ingam and Natasha Boyle, friends of friends who I have never met before, answered my last minute call on facebook for face painters.

The very lovely Sally Rainbowchild from The Space lead a 'Bee & Butterfly Yoga' session and local Neal's Yard consultant Janet Pegrum came along with their gorgeous 'Bee Lovely' range of lotions and potions. My wonderful partner Rob brought som top bar and warre bee hives and talked to people about Natural Beekeeping....as well as helping with lots of collecting, lifting and carrying; Gillingham Brownies came along dressed as bees and other pollinators to take part in our Pollinator Parade (which was led by Dorset Wildlife Trust's giant butterfly); Shaftesbury Abbey opened it's gardens on a donation only basis; Hunny-bears brought their honey...... and the universe, despite what the BBC weather forecast told me on its website, pitched in with loads of sunshine and absolutely no rain or thunderstorms!

Best of all was the fact that lots of lovely interested people came to support the event..... to buy plants, do yoga, eat cake, drink cider, tea & coffee, ask questions, attend talks and walks and generally celebrate all that we owe to our amazing and diverse pollinators.

So a HUGE thank you to all the above!!! But special thanks to Angela, Sue, Rob and Briony x

Although the focus of this event was very much on celebrating the wonderful diversity of pollinators and plants, we hope it will mark the beginning of a series of ongoing wildlife events in and around the town of Shaftesbury....so one of the aims of the day was to gather names and contact details of people who might be interested in coming to talks, workshops, walks etc.... or becoming involved in local wildlife groups and projects. This we achieved and it was hugely encouraging to meet so many like minded people who, we hope, will get involved with (or attend) future events and projects.

Shaftesbury is one of a growing number of towns and villages in the UK who's residents and council are working together to make their open spaces and gardens more bee/pollinator friendly. Wouldn't it be amazing if every village, town and city did the same....?

 Bee Walk in the Abbey Gardens

Sara Westaway's colouring in sheets

Rob Howard, Beekeeper

Marshwood Cider & Mead

Pollinator Parade

Elizabeth Ingham Face Painter

Paul McDougall 'The Italian Connection'

Natasha Boyle Face Painter