Tuesday, April 03, 2007

One for you garden watchers

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust is inviting people to send in records of what Bumblebees are seen in there gardens.

Dave Goulson, of the trust, said people would get help identifying the different species.

He said: "People with digital cameras or a camera on their mobile phones can send us pictures of the bumblebees in their garden and we will send them back an identification.

"If people send us the date and a postcode of where the bumblebee was seen then we will be able put together a national map."

The trust will announce a date for the garden watch later this year.

If anyone is after an id guide there is an article in the latest bird table (the journal of the BTO garden birdwatch scheme) or you could purchase the field guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland.

This maybe particularly prescient as the Daily Telegraph is reporting that honeybees colonies are being devastated this winter.

6 comments:

Jan said...

The bumble bee photos in Bird Table are good, but you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a lot of them unless you had the chart with you, they don't hang about long enough to photo either, well not here anyway.

The Quacks of Life said...

i know what you mean. i think its easier to get a photo in summer when they have their snouts in the flowers :D

nicola said...

this is so worrying, it was on the news too, not sure people realise the devestating effects this could have...

Anonymous said...

I'll check that guide out. I have a few buzzing visits to my garden and last year I had a burrowing bee make its home here.

oldcrow61 said...

I really enjoyed looking at the Bumblebee Trust site. I found it very disturbing to read about the devastation of the colonies in the Daily Telegraph. Awful!

The Quacks of Life said...

Beki - checkout the bumblee site they have some quick id charts.

OC - its happening over your side of the pond as well.

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