Jonathan & Denise >

The photo came first, and only then did we realize the subject linked neatly with the last previous post, Meet the Emperor. No, really!

An Gàrradh Mòr : Bumble Bee on Reducurrant flowers

There are no honey bees in Uist, so pollination is by other flying insects, often just flies. Bumble bees too : they nest and indeed hibernate in the gaps of the high stone walls of our garden, which is a very short journey to work for them, pollinating our apple trees and soft fruit bushes. Here, it’s a worker* Buff-tailed Bumble Bee (or worker* White-tailed Bumble Bee – the species is named after the colouring of the Queens, the workers of both species having white tails). The garden also has many resident Great Yellow Bumble Bees – which are rare, nationally : we saw several working on the quince flowers, but getting near enough to photograph them and they fly off. The white/buff-tailed bees are not so shy!

* That’s right, the photo shows a worker, not a queen … but we couldn’t let that stand in the way of a bit of fun with the post titles!