Page 6 - Bumblebee Conservation Trust Buzzword Magazine July 2020

2019 BeeWalk The Brown-banded carder bee (Bombus Unfortunately, June itself was cold

and wet, poor conditions for foraging
humilis) showed a bit of a decline from
the results 2018 – it really does seem to like hot bumblebees. Spring nests were
weather – but this was counterbalanced
finished off, and species took a hit as
elderly workers died off and could not
by the species continuing to spread
northwards. A highlight of the 2019 be replaced. The average number of
BeeWalk training days was finding the bumblebees seen per kilometre of
species at a new site – Croome Park, transect walked almost halved, from
in Worcestershire – and it’s fantastic to 30 in June to 17 in July.
see this rare species recolonising its Fortunately, the rest of the summer
former range. was warm as well as wet, and flowers
Overall, however, 2019 was just an OK bloomed. Late-emerging bumblebees
year for bumblebees in general. The were able to recover slightly, although
warm spring saw most species reach the two common late-flying species
above-average numbers between – Common carder bee (Bombus
Photo: Brown-banded carder bee
(Bombus humilis) by Dave Clark March and June. Early-emerging pascuorum) and Garden bumblebee
species did particularly well, with the (Bombus hortorum) – both ended up
Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum), having poor years overall.

By Dr Richard Comont, warm summers, and all three did well Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)
and Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus
Science Manager during 2019. terrestris) reaching noticeably high
The Shrill carder bee in particular had numbers and having some of their best
2019 was the biggest year yet for its best year since BeeWalk began. This years since monitoring began.
BeeWalk, our bumblebee abundance is likely to be due in no small part to the
survey. Across Britain, almost 500 people land management changes advised by
walked transects at 587 different sites, the Making a Buzz for the Coast and Back
an increase of 38 over the year before. from the Brink Shrill carder bee recovery
They submitted nearly 31,000 records project teams, with very high numbers of
and counted more than 97,000 individual the bumblebee recorded on some Kent
bees. Thanks to their help, we’re able to sites.
track the fortunes of our bumblebees in
near real time.

The real positive story coming out of 2019
was the recovery of some of our rarest
bumblebees. Three species – the Shrill Photo: BeeWalkers at Milton
carder bee (Bombus sylvarum), Brown- Creek by Lauren Kennedy
banded carder bee (Bombus humilis)
and the Ruderal bumblebee (Bombus To read the latest BeeWalk
ruderatus) – are Continental species at The abundance trend of all bumblebees recorded Report 2020, visit
heart, and reach their northern range on BeeWalk transects between 2010 and 2019,
edge in Britain. All three seem to be including individuals not identified to caste or bumblebeeconservation.
responding positively to the combination to species. This is shown as the mean number of org/publications/
bumblebees counted per kilometre walked each year
of targeted conservation work and recent (red line). The grey cloud is a measure of the annual
variation around this average (standard deviation).
Photo: A BeeWalk in progress in
6 Kent by Nikki Gammans 7