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Rossendale Birds Forum -> General Discussion -> ** Sightings of Bilberry (Blaeberry) Bumblebee - Bombus monticola **
Post Info TOPIC: ** Sightings of Bilberry (Blaeberry) Bumblebee - Bombus monticola **
JimOrmerod


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** Sightings of Bilberry (Blaeberry) Bumblebee - Bombus monticola **
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Last Friday I spent an enjoyable day helping with a survey looking for queens of the Bilberry Bumblebee at White Coppice near Chorley.  It was led by Ben Hargreaves of Lancs Wildlife Trust who is the Project Leader for "Plan Bee", aimed at protecting and boosting numbers of bees of all kinds.  It is focused mainly on West Lancashire but this species at least has a presence in Rossendale.

I remembered that Kevin Lister had recorded this species a couple of times (a search of the Forum produced Stubbylee Moss on 13th Aug 2011 and Lee Quarry track 19 May 2013) and there may be more.

The species is particularly dependent on Bilberry (Whinberry) and the workers feed on the flowers during the season.  Hence it tends to be a bee of the uplands but is in quite low numbers compared with other bumblebees.  What I hadn't realised until Friday was that the freshly emerged queens feed up on other sources of nectar and pollen whilst setting up their nests.  At this time of year this mainly takes the form of Sallow (Willow) catkins.  At White Coppice, which is north of Anglezarke,  we were in territory very similar to parts of Rossendale.  We were searching visually using binoculars for bumblebees feeding on the catkins of a line of Willows along the river.  I'm sure there must be similar Willows near to Whinberry slopes in parts of Rossendale (Plunge springs to mind) so I wondered if people could make a special effort to look out for these bees over the next few weeks?  Ideally, take a photo if you can for confirmation although they are very distinctive in that they are a middle sized bee, smaller than the huge queens of Buff-tailed and White-tailed often seen at this time.  They have a yellow band just behind the head and almost the whole abdomen is a bright orangy-red colour.  The Early Bumblebee which is a similar size only has the very tip of the abdomen orange.

Please try to take a look if you can, particularly at Grane, Plunge, Lee Quarry and Stubbylee Moss and at Willows near to other areas of Whinberry.

If you have any queries please get in touch - jim1997 AT btinternet DOT com  (being human you'll know how to make an email address of this!)

Information about Plan Bee: http://www.lancswt.org.uk/plan-bee

Picture of the bumblebee: http://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/identification/scarce/

Many thanks,  Jim Ormerod

 



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Jim Ormerod
KEVIN LISTER


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Hi Jim

If my memory is correct the bee I saw on Stubbylee Moss was on a thistle. I assume this was probably a queen that had emerged from a nest ready to hibernate for next year.  Queen bumblebees seem to be constantly on the move at this time of year, making it very difficult to photograph them but I will give it a go.  Deeply Vale, Buckhurst, Harden Clough and Fletcher Bank Quarry are other likely areas.  Any idea why species such as this are declining whilst the tree bumblebee is increasing so rapidly?

cheers Kevin



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JimOrmerod


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Kevin - many thanks for your response. I agree that your Stubbylee Moss record in August would have been a recently emerged queen feeding up for hibernation.

You are right about them not staying still for photos too - though one of the ones we saw at White Coppice settled below the tree in the grass for a while allowing good photos for some.

Your suggested additional sites would be worth a look too, pretty well anywhere with Whinberry. I realised on Friday that I hadn't even thought of looking for them on Willow at this time of year, I've only ever tried when the Whinberry was out, when they probably cover a larger area and are thinner on the ground.

It's strange about the relative success of the Tree Bumblebee. They don't appear to compete directly with other bumblebees but there is nothing much obvious in their life cycle to account for it. Other species than B monticola are declining too, possibly due to agri-chemicals, use of poor nectar plants in gardens etc. The odd thing is that, although there is lots of Whinberry at White Coppice, much of it is heavily grazed by sheep so the bees probably don't get many flowers to gos at but they are still hanging on.

It will be good to know how you go on.

Best wishes

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Jim Ormerod
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Hi Jim

One good thing about the sheep grazed whinberry is that green hairstreak butterflies seem to prefer it.  Certainly I've never seen them in the large bushy areas of whinberry where sheep no longer graze, so it's probably worth a look there at the end of April to the end of May

cheers Kevin 



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Hi Jim

I saw a possible blaeberry bumblebee enter a patch of winberry near the larger of the two houses at AMR today.  Can't be certain as it moved too fast, disappeared into the winberry and I didn't see it again.  It was definitely a red tailed bumblebee species with a yellow band towards the front of it's body, but unfortunately I didn't see it clearly enough for a positive id. There were lots of bumblebees around today, unfortunately for me hardly any of them stopped to allow positive id.

cheers Kevin

 



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C Bel


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Hi Jim / Kevin, 

Saw 3 today what matched the descriptions perfectly. No idea re bees so only guessing. They were on a steep banking with whinberry growth..

Bloody hard to photograph too, especially with an iPhone!! Didn't stop moving.

image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg



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JimOrmerod


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Hi Kevin

Sounds possible. It would be good if you could visit the site again later in the season.  The workers should be out in late May or June and you'll probably have more chance of seeing them as there will be more of them.  They're just like smaller versions of the queens.  Many thanks

 



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Jim Ormerod
JimOrmerod


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Hi Craig

I think you've found one, well done!  The first photo especially looks spot on.  I'm going to forward them to the Plan Bee project leader if you don't mind.  Do you know the grid reference where you saw it?

Again, it would be good to check later in the season when the workers are active.

 

Thanks for that.



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Jim Ormerod
C Bel


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Hi Jim,

Sent you an email.



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JimOrmerod


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Craig - Ben confirmed your ID for the bee at Cliviger, good record.

 

All - Ben recently visited Grane and found 5 species of bumblebee on the slopes overlooking Calf Hey and Ogden which has a lot of Whinberry.  He didn't see any Bilberry Bumblebees but was only there for about 90 mins so that's not conclusive.  I think this is a site searched for Green Hairstreaks so it might be worth looking out for the bumblebees at the same time.  In a few weeks there should be workers about giving more chance of seeing them because of the numbers.

I think  Seat Naze might be a site too.  I'm sure I had one once when I lived at Piercy down below.  I know there was Whinberry there but it did get grazed I think.

A site I might try myself is Holcombe Hill.  I think the side overlooking Saplin Wood has Whinberry.

Thanks for your efforts - keep looking.

 

 

 

 



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Jim Ormerod
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Hi Jim

found 1 feeding on thistles on the side of Ogden Reservoir today.  The attached pictures are not very good, due to the windy conditions today, but should be good enough for identification

cheers Kevin



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JimOrmerod


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Thanks Kevin.

Could you pinpoint the site a little more?  Was it to the west or east of the res?  Could you give a grid-ref?

 

Many thanks



-- Edited by JimOrmerod on Tuesday 30th of June 2015 11:40:08 AM

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Jim Ormerod
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Hi Jim

3 at Ogden Reservoir again today all along the south side of the reservoir.  Again it was very windy today, so photos were hard to take, but the attached should be ok for id.  The 3 bumblebees were spread over about 80 yards along the side of the res. 

cheers Kevin



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KEVIN LISTER


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Hi Jim

1 again at Ogden Res today and another at Deansgreave Road, New Line.  Photo is the one at Ogden. Grid ref for Deansgreave Road is SD881216.  This is quite close to the one I reported from Stubbylee Moss a year or two ago.  The photo is the one at Ogden

cheers Kevin



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JimOrmerod


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Thanks Kevin, I'll pass them on.



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