Just a few photographs to share with you my progress in recognising different bumblebees. There are lots about at the moment.
This is a buff-tailed bumblebee queen I photographed in March. She has golden yellow stripes and a buff tail.
This is a tree bumblebee worker with full pollen baskets on a raspberry flower. This is a relatively new species to this country. It colonized the south of England in 2001 and is working its way north.
click on the photographs for a larger view
Tree bumblebees have a gingery brown thorax and a black abdomen with a white tail. There are lots of these in my garden.
Here is a mystery bee. The only all black bumblebees are rather rare so I think this is probably a tree bumblebee. I have e-mailed this picture to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust as they will identify them for you.
It was very dull when I took the last two, so I used the in-camera flash. The shutter speed was too slow to catch really sharp shots and the little bees won't keep still!!
As you can probably tell my love of art is only matched by my love of the natural world, photography is a great way to bring both together.
