Durham Biodiversity Partnership: Bee Alert

If you remember, you were asked to look out for two bumblebee species the red tailed bumblebee (B. lapidarius) and the common carder bumblebee (B. pascuorum) and then to do a count of any kind of bumblebee in your garden and during a 20 minute walk outside your garden. We used the results to plot a distribution map for the two bee species and to do some simple analysis of whether more bees were found in the garden than outside of it, which is what we expected to find.

As this was a garden survey most results were clustered in and around the larger towns and cities, so many results came in from urban areas that it was impossible to get them all onto the distribution map. As well as the urban clusters what the map also shows however, is that we got a good spread of results across the whole of the county. A simple conclusion, but good base line information, is that both bumblebee species are well distributed across the county. Using this data, changes in the distribution of the two bumblebee species can be mapped in the future.

More spectacular was the result of the in and out of garden count. A massive 66.5% of those who took part in the count found more bees inside their garden than in 20 minutes outside of it. Whilst I wouldn't pretend that this is good science I think it does show two things, firstly that our gardens and how we manage them can make a difference to the fortunes of common wildlife and it reinforces the ongoing argument for conservation of habitats across the whole of the landscape.

The critical difference is probably the presence or absence of flowers, the way we manage both urban and rural landscapes has for many years now taken wild flowers out of the countryside, with the consequent decline of some dependent insect and bird species. In simple terms those species, which have adapted to foraging in gardens are doing well, but at what price, the loss of the less adaptable species and the dependence on a human habit, which is subject to the vagaries of fashion?

Whilst DWT supports the principle of gardening for wildife it is very important not to make the mistake that increased wildlife gardening is a panacea for the loss of specialist species and habitats in the wider countryside, it isn't. It is imperative that new initiatives in farming and management of the urban landscape concentrate on the conservation and expansion of our "wild" species rich habitats by whatever means possible. If we can get habitat conservation at a landscape level right then bumblebees and all the rest of our insects and animals will benefit.

Bee Alert 2005 More flowers, more bees: more bees, more flowers. Remember counting those bees in your garden on a hot summers day? Dwell on it for a while, it'll cheer you up on the cold winter's day when you read this, then cast your mind forward to the gentle sound of bees in the garden next summer. Our survey results indicate that a garden is by far the place where you are most likely to find bees to listen too. Thank you, all for contributing to what was without doubt Durham Wildlife Trust's best ever public participation survey, we had a tremendous return from across the whole of the county, as a practicing conservationist it was heartening to see so many people interested and concerned over the fortunes of the familiar bumblebee.

If you remember, you were asked to look out for two bumblebee species the red tailed bumblebee (B. lapidarius) and the common carder bumblebee (B. pascuorum) and then to do a count of any kind of bumblebee in your garden and during a 20 minute walk outside your garden. We used the results to plot a distribution map for the two bee species and to do some simple analysis of whether more bees were found in the garden than outside of it, which is what we expected to find. As this was a garden survey most results were clustered in and around the larger towns and cities, so many results came in from urban areas that it was impossible to get them all onto the distribution map. As well as the urban clusters what the map also shows however, is that we got a good spread of results across the whole of the county. A simple conclusion, but good base line information, is that both bumblebee species are well distributed across the county. Using this data, changes in the distribution of the two bumblebee species can be mapped in the future. More spectacular was the result of the in and out of garden count. A massive 66.5% of those who took part in the count found more bees inside their garden than in 20 minutes outside of it. Whilst I wouldn't pretend that this is good science I think it does show two things, firstly that our gardens and how we manage them can make a difference to the fortunes of common wildlife and it reinforces the ongoing argument for conservation of habitats across the whole of the landscape. The critical difference is probably the presence or absence of flowers, the way we manage both urban and rural landscapes has for many years now taken wild flowers out of the countryside, with the consequent decline of some dependent insect and bird species. In simple terms those species, which have adapted to foraging in gardens are doing well, but at what price, the loss of the less adaptable species and the dependence on a human habit, which is subject to the vagaries of fashion? Whilst DWT supports the principle of gardening for wildife it is very important not to make the mistake that increased wildlife gardening is a panacea for the loss of specialist species and habitats in the wider countryside, it isn't. It is imperative that new initiatives in farming and management of the urban landscape concentrate on the conservation and expansion of our "wild" species rich habitats by whatever means possible. If we can get habitat conservation at a landscape level right then bumblebees and all the rest of our insects and animals will benefit.