After the rain had finally stopped this morning we went down to the allotment. Still very soggy though. As the sky brightened various bumblebees came to visit the comfrey and the blackberries, the latter of which are now flowering. The carder and tawny mining bees on the comfrey were just too quick for me to get a photograph of but a Tree Bumblebee spent quite a bit of time on the blackberry flowers.
The Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) is a recent and rapid coloniser, having first been spotted in Wiltshire in 2001 but has now spread all over England and now into Scotland and Ireland since then. They do like bramble flowers as well as raspberries, comfrey and cotoneaster. Apart from sometimes invading nest boxes they do not seem to be causing any issues for the native bee species.
This one appears rather bedraggled from the morning rain though appeared to be feeding happily on the nectar on the bramble flower.
More about the Tree Bumblebee can be found on the
Bee Conservation Trust's website
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