7th March 2019 Borgie Cabin with Katy Malone from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust
BeeWalk is a standardised bumblebee-monitoring scheme involving volunteers who walk the same fixed route once a month between March and October, counting the bumblebees seen and where possible, identifying them to species and caste (queen, worker, male). The scheme established in 2008 aims to collect data on the UK’s bumblebees to analyse population trends. The information is important in monitoring the change in bumblebee populations through time, and indicates early warning signs of population decline.
Katy Malone from Bumblebee Conservation, who’s enthusiasm and love of bumblebees is infectious, led this interesting and informative course which kicked off in the morning with a session in Borgie cabin.
The course was attended by fourteen people and Katy explained the aims of the scheme and how each of us could set up and adopt a ‘transect’ to walk. It was encouraging to hear how we could make a difference by being the first people to carry out BeeWalks in our area.
We brushed up on our Bee identification skills and after some refreshments headed out in the afternoon for a practical session in Borgie woods.
There are not usually many bees out and about at this time of year (a few queens perhaps as we now know thanks to Katy’s talk), but Katy’s ‘bees on a stick’ (photos, not real bees!) were an excellent substitute, and gave us all a good indication of how a BeeWalk works in practise.
Thank you to Katy and to The Bumblebee Conservation Trust for providing the course.
