Page 7 - Out Birding Issue 109 Winter 2022

eggs hatch and pupate into worker bumblebees, which are all females - their role is to tend the queen and her future offspring as she con􏰀nues to lay eggs in the nest. At the end of the nest cycle, the queen lays new queen and male eggs.
The bumblebees we focused on for our safari would of course be the species local to Rye Harbour, these being: Buff tailed, White tailed, Garden, Red tailed, Common Card- er plus possibly the rarer Brown Banded Carder and the very rare Moss Carder. The rarest of all would be to find the Ruderal Bumblebee, a variety of which is a large al- most completely black bee and is in fact na􏰀onally rare so would be a terrific find in- deed. The warm weather was somewhat against us as bumblebees prefer cooler con- di􏰀ons it seems - plus the increasing scarcity of our bees due to habitat loss and envi- ronmental condi􏰀ons which made our expecta􏰀ons not so great...Sadly 97% of our bumblebees were wiped out due to the destruc􏰀on of natural wildflower meadows during WWII through the ‘Dig for Britain’ campaign, Furthermore, 75% of all insect life here was lost during a 25 year period from the 1950s when widespread use of chemi- cals in farming began in earnest. Thankfully the 􏰀de is turning with many farmers leav- ing areas of land such as field margins over to wild flower habitats, thus helping many of our threatened wildlife species...
There are five key features to look for in order to iden􏰀fy bumblebee species, these being: Tail colour, Thorax colour/banding, Abdomen colour/banding, Hind leg shape - if a ‘pollen basket’ is present the bee is a female, either worker or queen. Head shape is also a species indicator as is Tongue length (Garden Bumblebees have the longest tongue of the species we were looking for) So armed with our bee nets, glass iden􏰀fi- ca􏰀on pots, ID charts and slathered in sunscreen, we ventured out into the wild...
The cooling sea breeze and overcast condi􏰀ons had thankfully reduced the impact of the heat somewhat and we were pleased to find many more hungry bumblebees for- aging than we expected. We were all encouraged and very much empowered by Mor- gan’s great enthusiasm to try our hand at carefully but decisively ne􏰁ng the bees and gently coaxing them briefly into a specimen pot for observa􏰀on and iden􏰀fica􏰀on before releasing them safely back into the wild. The species we found included Buff, Red and White tailed bumblebees plus Garden and some rather interes􏰀ng solitary bees - including the charmingly named Pantaloon Bee (with pantaloons!), a Green- eyed Flower Bee and a Silvery Mining bee. A􏰂er a welcome lunch break at the new Rye Harbour Visitors Centre, we returned to Peter and Morgan’s gallery for more ID 􏰀ps and to view their extraordinary collec􏰀on of bumblebee samples (found dead or collected from the roadside).
Back on the reserve we focussed our search area to the wildflower rich river bank where na􏰀ve wild flowers have been introduced specifically for bees and bu􏰃erflies to thrive. Our hope was to perhaps find some of the rarer species of bumblebees. We were not disappointed! We had an incredibly frui􏰄ul a􏰂ernoon - several Carder spe- cies were found including the Common Carder plus three rare Brown Banded Carders,
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