Bumble Bees, a Bee Book, Cute Geese ... and more

28 June

The world is too hot …

… and one proven way to cool down is to find a waterfall, such as the one we provide free of charge to any passing bird (or chipmunk). These birds all arrived within ten minutes of each other yesterday afternoon.

American Redstart, Chipping Sparrows, Recently fledged American Robins, Northern Cardinal

Male House Finch samples the first ripe Amelanchier berries of the season

Much as I am fascinated by birds, I like to come across interesting insects just as much. Maybe more; I was going to be an entomologist when I left college decades ago, but then I got seduced into a differently interesting biology track because, you know, bills have to be paid. Anyway, when I lived in England, I once kept a few hives of Honey Bees and enjoyed their honey on my toast and it was always fun and instructive messing about in the hives. On this continent though, despite the importance of non-native honey bees to food production, it is the native bees such as the fellow described below that matter more. We must ensure they have the conditions and habitat that enable them to thrive. I have to say that I would be overjoyed to learn that these particular bees have nests in our wildlife garden. Who knows, but they have a better chance of thriving here than in the traditional lawn-encumbered suburban environment nearby.

A New Bee For Me

This is a Red-belted Bumble Bee (Bombus rufocinctus) and a very fine and handsome insect too. I happened across it a couple of days ago and realised that this was a new species for me. They are not rare, in as much as they can be found pretty well all across the country, but compared to the everyday Common Eastern Bumble Bees and the like, they somehow have never crossed my path until now. Best known at northern sites and in the western mountains of the continent but local in occurrence in the northeastern parts and even locally numerous at some sites. Typically they favour open habitat such as prairies (not many of those here), but also mountain meadows and sometimes more unusual places. The species exhibits quite a lot of colour variation as shown in the graphic further down this article.

Dispersal occurs in spring or early summer by queens searching for suitable nest sites, though they begin activity later than most other bee species. They are thought to be able to spread relatively long distances, at least between 2.6 and 10 km from the colony of origin. Nesting sites occur in underground cavities like old mouse nests etc. and even actually on the ground surface. Typically nests are within some 100 meters of high-quality foraging habitat with abundant floral resources (Xerces Society Habitat Management 2021). The species is not especially threatened, but numbers have decreased in recent years due to the usual threats that affect most insects such as habitat loss, pesticide exposure, pathogens, and climate change effects. Their adaptability to various habitat types and generalist foraging behavior may, though, provide some resilience against these environmental pressures.

They are actually relatively small, but I have to say that I was struck by the one I photographed being, to my eye, larger than usual for a bee size. Very subjective. They live in and around wooded areas, often in parks and gardens and are generalists, feeding on a range of different plants. They have a very short tongue, and forage most often on knapweeds, lupins, and sweet clover. that have flowers they can access

This graphic shows the main color morphs of the single bee species described above

Note: above is an example that demonstrates a particular situation where AI image generation can be helpful and not to condemned out of hand as somehow stealing food from the mouths of starving artists (something I have seen espoused rather too often). I was unable to find a single image adequately showing these color variations, but with a suitably detailed prompt the cloud was able to assemble the above illustration.

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Fireflies

The other particularly pleasurable observation of note is that the first Fireflies of the season have started flashing in the evening as the sun goes down. I have tried over the years to photograph this activity but I have nothing to show you yet. Probably never will. Not while they are flashing, anyway. Not this summer.

I enjoyed reading this post - the text is interesting, but do look at the pictures of cute Goose chicks hatching in a most unusual place.

Geese Falling From Cedars

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Sand Cats

Deserts are amazing habitats - not as sterile as you might expect.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/24/youtube-video-proved-libya-sand-cat-exist-aoe

In light of the fine bee that I wrote about above, I offer this book for your consideration this week. The author is very authoritative bee expert - a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2013 HE won the Marsh Award for Conservation Biology from the Zoological Society of London. He founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a charity devoted to reversing bumblebee declines. This book was recommended before in the “OLD Bookshop” substack that has now merged with his newsletter, but I thought it worth repeating the review for the majority of WOWers who will not have seen the original.

A Buzz in the Meadow - Dave Goulson

The author has written several fascinating books for the lay-naturalist about different bee species and the places around the world in which they are to be found … his work allows him to travel a lot. This book is a little different to some of his others as it is more personal - being an account of a lifetime studying bees, and a call to arms for nature lovers everywhere. It was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for the best nonfiction book of the year. Gould has a rare ability to educate, while telling an absorbing story.

Here he relates how he bought a derelict farm in the heart of rural France. Over the course of a decade, on thirty-three acres of meadow, he created a place for his bumblebees to thrive. But other creatures live there too, myriad insects of every kind. You will learn how a deathwatch beetle finds its mate, why butterflies have spots on their wings, and see how a real scientist actually conducts his experiments.

The author suggests to us to go out into our gardens or local park and simply observe the natural world. Life in all its forms is there to be discovered. And if we learn to value what we have, perhaps we will find a way to keep it.

There is a very good review of the book that you will find if you follow this link …

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/14/a-buzz-in-the-meadow-review-dave-goulson-neonicotinoids-insects-bees

In that review, I found these truths:

There seems a rule, and Goulson’s book bears this out, that the further biologists travel from Homo sapiens as a professional concern, the easier-going and more ego-free members of the species they are likely to be themselves. There are not many prima donnas in tardigrade studies. Nor are entomologists made anxious about the human implications of their findings in the way that vexes, say, primatologists.

Kestrels

Two months ago, an earlier recommended nature book from the OLD Bookshop was The Book of Birds by Morris & Macfarlane. Truly splendid - and with fabulous illustrations too. Here’s the original article:

A very different bird book - and a tiny orchid

I think you will enjoy this evocative description from The Book of Birds of one species that we all know, wherever we do our birding. I think it captures them very well indeed :

THIRTY FEET ABOVE the central reservation hangs Kestrel’s cross: body bent, wings flung wide, impossibly still, absolved of Earth’s gravity, wind’s friction. Hundreds of cars hurtle under her hover, but only a handful of people - a child, a farmer, a mother - look up, eyes briefly raised to this everyday miracle, this tiny roadside crucifixion. The sun is strong and as they pass beneath her, Kestrel suddenly becomes translucent; her feathers shone through like stained glass, like coloured crystal.

Kestrel is the Wind-Ghost’; subtle and spectral, she slips between gaps in the gale, then surfs its hurly-burly rage with barely a tremor, holding that hunting head of hers gyroscope-steady, as her eyes pry the ground for a telltale flicker of grass that betrays the position of prey: the mouse, the vole, the shrew. After the hover comes the buckle, then the killing: Kestrel snaps pistol-crack-swift out of stasis, folds, falls feet-first, stoops, with eight sickled talons reaching, snatching, piercing, stilling.

Not wishing to deny former OLD Bookshop subscribers the latest news from the village now that your feed has been merged here. In brief:

• The trial open day at Amy’s new village bakery was a great success, even allowing for the fact that quite a few customers probably came out of curiosity. On the Friday morning she opened, all of her first batch of loaves and rolls were snapped up. She has firm orders from me at the OLD Bookshop to supply the café side of my business but also the two pubs in St-Fenella will be taking her bread regularly - no doubt selling it at a considerable markup, too. Enough locals have said they will be back to be encouraging and she has opened a subscription service whereby for a guaranteed regular weekly order you get bread at a lower price than would a walk-in customer. She’s taking things slowly - fingers crossed this is a success. Pastries and sweet breads will be added to her offering in coming weeks. For now the shop will open only on Fridays so people can have fresh bread for the weekend.

• The vicar’s proposal to allotment holders on the parish field, that they set aside some of their produce once a month to donate to a nearby food bank has met with a degree of approval. It’s early in the season, but there will be boxes of salad greens, brassicas and the like, ready to go to those in need on a regular basis.

Marsh Harrier in Mirkmere Nature Reserve

Marsh Harrier cruising over Mirkmere Fen

Astute readers will have realized that physically locating Mirkmere Nature Reserve can be tricky, even with the best GPS system in your car. However, it is not far distant from what, to me, is one of the best nature reserves in England - Wicken Fen, and that is very accessible and with an excellent tea shop too. Many of the species we see on Mirkmere Fen are the same as Wicken has - but without the wild ponies. If you are in Cambridgeshire, pay them a visit.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cambridgeshire/wicken-fen-national-nature-reserve