skip to main content

Great yellow bumblebee - update

The following are brief summaries of some of the action that we and our partners have done since the Species Action Framework was launched. They're in chronological order, with the most recent updates at the top of the page.

30 March 2010

One of the objectives of Species Action Framework for the great yellow bumblebee is the training of volunteers for site monitoring. To help with this a new and  comprehensive Volunteer Handbook  PDF document   has just been published. The handbook represents an important aid for local coordinators and will help to recruit new participants as well as support UK and Local Biodiversity Action Plan and Species Action Framework efforts. Produced by the Species Action Framework main partners (Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Hymettus Ltd, RSPB, SNH) and local Coordinators, the handbook will be available to volunteers in great yellow bumblebee regions by spring 2010. This will allow use in training and building confidence for the full flight season of great yellow bumblebee.

7 December 2009

In June 2008 a partnership between Scottish Natural Heritage, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Hymettus (Aculeate Conservation Group) and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust was formed to take the work forward. These organisations were joined on the Steering Group by representatives of the Highland Council Ranger Service and the Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP) partnerships from Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney, Western Isles and Argyll. Progress with work to date is summarised below.

The RSPB is carrying out work to maintain populations on its reserves: The Reef (Tiree), Coll, Balranald (N. Uist), The Loons, Brodgar, Birsay Moors, Onziebust, Marwick Head and Copinsay (Orkney). A report has been produced.  PDF document

Training of volunteers and piloting of monitoring techniques were carried out over the summer 2008 in the Western Isles, Caithness, Sutherland and Orkney.

Distribution of education packs (Get more buzz from farming  PDF document ) was completed in 2009.

Planting work began at some demonstration sites at Melness and Murkle while other potential sites are being considered for 2010 field season. The working group has concluded that SRDP is not an appropriate route of funding for many of the sites identified as demonstration plots because they are too small or because returns do not meet applicants' expectations.

Volunteers based in Caithness, under the guidance of Bumblebee Conservation Trust, have detected previously unknown sites for the species.

Since observations in the core range of the mining bee northern colletes (Colletes floralis) in the Western Isles and Argyll island as well as in Ayrshire have established that the species is widespread and often abundant, the Steering Group has agreed to modify the approach originally specified in the original agreement.  It is proposed for 2010 that the distribution of Colletes floralis on mainland Scotland (and the possible island sites that have not been surveyed) should be established before monitoring is put in place, and that monitoring should be concentrated on the marginal areas of the range and areas where population density is low.