Great to have so many people with us over the last two weeks for Bumblebee survey refresher and ID sessions led by Hayley Herridge, Conservation Officer, Buglife.

We have also refined Herefordshire Meadows guidance on bumblebee monitoring for meadow restoration for 2019 Meadow making pilots, 2020 Pollinator Meadows and anyone else wanting to survey bumblebees. Please refer to this before you go out and do your surveys this year.  It has useful guidance about the simplified BeeWalk method, where to get ID charts, equipment for catching and identifying bees etc.

We’re using the F2 bumblebee recording form and here’s How to net and pot a bumblebee so you can identify it

If you missed either of these sessions Hayley has given us her slides and you can ask Caroline for the link to the recordings too.

Slides from Herefordshire Meadows bumblebee monitoring workshop covering all you need to know about setting up a survey on your meadow.   The recording of this Zoom session on 2.6.20 is available to catch up

Herefordshire Meadows ID virtual workshop with Hayley Herridge.  Ist part is about bumblebee life cycle and the most common bees we might find Then we all went outdoors to see what we could find in our garden or meadow. We had a quiz that highlights some really useful ID tips to look at and finished with how to walk your transect in a 2 x 2 x 4 m recording box and how to net and pot a bee.   The video of this Zoom session on 9.6.20 is available to catch up

There is a short clinic on 23 June at 6.30 pm where Hayley will help with “in focus as possible” photos of bees that you’d like help with and any other queries about this summer’s surveys. Please get in touch if you want the Zoom link to join this clinic.

Please send queries and photos to Caroline Hanks or Sue Holland