Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

During social distancing the Cumbria Wildlife Trust hasn't been able to hold the usual member activities, as a semi replacement they have held some webinars/online talks.   Yesterday we were treated to a fascinating talk about the get Cumbria Buzzing project.  

The project is necessary owing to the drastic fall in pollinators.  Honey bees are not the answer.  Bumble bees are 120 times better/more efficient at the job.  The UK has 24 species of Bumblebee, 9 common in Cumbria.  There are a further 244 species of solitary bee.

The project is concentration on the flyway through the lakes (aka the A66) and the coastal areas to begin with.  However reports from all over the county are welcomed.  iNaturalist an app for the phone and a website has a project for the reporting of species seen.   The system takes reports for all forms of wildlife and feeds the info back to the correct recorders for the area.   For us the Cumbria Biodiversity Data Centre.

A final word about recording.  It is important people report all species seen.  Before I explain why a little story.   I went to Eycott Hill CWT nature reserve on a course run by CBDC.  The CWT staff turned to Stewart (CBDC) and said "we found a new species for the reserve the other day".  Repy "Oh what was it".   "You are standing under it!"  It was a 30ft Ash Tree nobody had bothered to record being too busy looking down at plants insects etc.

It is important all species are recorded as if they aren't either we don't know they exist or populations of common species can crash without any body noticing.