Bombus hypnorum - Summary of 2010 monitoring project
(2009 summary
here)
After the successes of 2009, it was remarkable that 2010 would prove to be
an even more successful season. The successes fall into two categories:
Firstly, the bee itself. Strong consolidation in known areas, with many
repeat observations, and on top of that, we have seen the long-awaited
expansion westward, with records across south Wales and into the south-west
peninsula, as far as eastern Cornwall. Secondly, the response of the BWARS
membership, and the public at large have swelled the number of records this
year to a staggering 670. As I write, I still await records from many
stalwarts, several local Recording Schemes, and from our collaborators at
the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
This year we have made available our first full Information Sheet on
Bombus hypnorum, and I am know that there have been many downloads from
the BWARS website and from other sites which have made this available. In
2011, we will also have a Welsh language version of the sheet available,
thanks to one of our keenest (and youngest) supporters in Carmarthen.
From our 670 records, the number of occupied grid cells has grown from 200
to 336 (a 68% increase) this year. Only about 50% of all the cells from
which we received data up to the end of 2009 had no repeat records this
year. Evidence suggests that the season was running about two weeks behind
2009, and this may have been responsible for the decrease in the number of
second brood workers and males being seen in August.
Many areas have had staggering numbers of individuals this year, with peak
activity falling in the second week in June. On a one hour walk on a
transect around suburban Salisbury, I saw no less than 100 individuals,
mostly at flowers of Bramble. Other highlights include a swathe of records
from across south Wales, from Monmouthshire west to Pembroke, with a hot
spot in Carmarthenshire. Add to this a huge increase in numbers of sightings
from Adam Bates’s OPAL teams in Birmingham, and many records from in and
around Leicester, Leeds and Tyneside as well. We have also received a large
number of reports coming in of active nests in bird, bat and Dormouse boxes,
and we are grateful to the BTO, Bat Conservation Trust and the Mammal
Society members who have sent in their data to us. Indeed, we are indebted
to our active and dedicated membership and all the many naturalists from a
myriad of disciplines who have sent in data to our scheme this summer.
The system for monitoring B. hypnorum in UK was presented to a large
audience of US biologists at an 4 day international conference at Penn State
University in Pennsylvania, USA in late July. There is a lot of enthusiasm
in the US for attempting a similar approach to ours, and this, along with
other monitoring protocols, will be studied at a conference at St. Louis zoo
in November.
Stuart Roberts 2010. Photo: David Elements. |
