On 27th June Dr Richard Comont from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust led an afternoon of bumblebee identification and survey training, in the beautiful grounds of Croft Castle.   

Time was spent netting and potting bumble bees on the fields that were restored with the help of Herefordshire Meadows in 2019, and in the walled garden where conditions were more favourable on what turned out to be an overcast and breezy afternoon.   

Many of the attendees were this years B-Lines Project, and Botanica Project, restoration site owners, gaining the skills needed to monitor progress at their own meadows over the coming years.  The survey method used is the UK-wide Beewalk Scheme methodology, results of which feed into one of the largest bumblebee datasets in the world. 

This training day was organised in partnership with Buglife, our project partners on the Get The Marches Buzzing project, part of Buglife’s important B-Lines work (https://www.buglife.org.uk/our-work/b-lines/). 

Helpful bumblebee recording resources can be found on our website: https://www.herefordshiremeadows.org.uk/resources/survey-monitoring/ 

Many thanks to Jason Wood and the other National Trust staff and volunteers at Croft Castle for hosting.