Bee-ing

A few times I have mentioned that there seem to be a lot of bees about. I was staring at a blackberry bush and watching bees and flies and other creatures flocking to the flowers.

This is a white tailed bumblebee. Or at least, it could be.... except for nearly all our bumblebees who aren't queens have white tails. Looking at the chart, I'd guess southern cuckoo... but I'm not convinced. As for the one on the front, I'd thought it was a honey bee, but looking here I wonder if it's a leaf cutter? In the woods, I see mainly buff tailed queen bumblebees.

This one, dead and wingless, was on the track on the way down. And close by, I saw another.

This was smaller, a worker, either buff or white tailed, I think.

Once I had seen two, I was rather expecting there'd be more. That there was some dramatic bee fatality event going on. But I saw no more. Even so, the queen's winglessness worried me. I thought that was an impact of neonicotinoid pesticides which I had thought were banned... oh now, turns out the Government is in the process of planning to ban them. Bit late.

Onto other flying things, and, on the bramble bush, two comma butterflies. In the final picture, you can see the comma perfectly.