Silent Sunday

White tailed bumblebee

Bumblebee Sunday

The bumblebees have been around for about a week. But it was only yesterday that I saw them feeding on the willow tree in the garden. Willow is an important early pollen source for bumblebee queens coming out of hibernation. This is what they are after.

Yellow willow pollen

There appears to two bees, the White-tailed bumble and the Buff tailed bumble. These are usually the first bees we see here in the west.

Buff tailed bumblebee

White tailed bumblebee

White-tailed bumblebee

 

White tailed queen bumblebee

Bumbles are back!

Yes, spring has finally arrived! Today, we finally had some sun after many grey and wet days and I saw the first bumblebees – white tailed and maybe buff tailed too, but they were high up in the willow tree.

White tailed bumblebee

The first bee I saw in my parent’s garden. I only had my phone but you can really see that this bee has plenty of parasites. Hopefully they won’t have a detrimental effect on her ability to get a nest started and a new colony going.

There are still couple of places available on this Friday’s Pollinator Course at Lough Lannagh in Castlebar – click here for more information.