Last week I spotted a couple of bumblebees in the garden that I felt I really couldn't identify. I have sent photos to the Natural History Society to see if they can tell me what they are.
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What caught my attention with Bee 1 was the lack of a buff or white tail. Instead, as can be seen from a second photo, there is the merest tip of white at the very end of the tail.
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| Bee 1 - side view |
After I took the photos I thought I noticed a slight interruption to the abdominal band and so wondered about broken-belted bumblebee. This seems highly likely however in terms of other factors and it would have to have been far away from its normal local habitat.
Afterwards I did come across some information that Bee 2 might possibly be a late-flying hairy-footed flower bee worker, and not a bumblebee at all. However I haven't seen one before so it would be interesting to know.
On Saturday, Alex and I set out to Finglandrigg Wood in Cumbria on a planned mission to track down the marsh fritillary. In spite of two tours through the suspect area, we were unable to manage a single sighting. Apart from various speckled wood, ringlet, small skipper, red admiral and meadow brown, the only out of the ordinary sighting was of a small tortoiseshell in pursuit of its mate (presumably). First seen on a mossy rock in the early afternoon, they were still at it on the nearby boardwalk when we re-visited the area a couple of hours earlier.
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| Small Tortoiseshells |
As when we visited the Campfield Moss a year ago there were some carder bees nectaring on foxgloves. Last year I thought they were moss carder bees. On further research I'm more doubtful but they were certainly of a lighter hue that the ones I see here.
Moving on to Campfield Moss for a late visit we again found that the birds had mostly absented themselves apart from oyster catchers, a buzzard and a kestrel.
However it was quite nice to see woodpeckers, tree sparrows and greenfinch on the feeders, amongst others.
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