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Adrian Doble
Apr 13, 20232 min read
Caring for our pollinators
Every year, 2000 volunteers from around the UK record a total of nearly one million bumblebees on regular routes, once a month as part of...
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Adrian Doble
Feb 16, 20232 min read
A house of straw
The sight of three large, healthy, queen Buff-tailed bumblebees foraging together on an early flowering Daphne odora last month, was a...
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Adrian Doble
Jan 15, 20232 min read
A bird box for bumblebees
The bumblebees are all hiding away at the moment, hibernating in secure niches just waiting for the temperatures to rise above 10 C . It...
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Adrian Doble
Nov 25, 20222 min read
Football playing drones?
The strangely warm weather this Autumn has resulted in many Winter shrubs like Mahonia and Viburnum bodnantense flowering early. This...
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Adrian Doble
Oct 19, 20222 min read
A penny for your thoughts
A well-stocked garden will still have plenty of colour this month thanks to flowers like Cosmos, Salvia, Cyclamen, Dahlia and Nasturtium....
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Adrian Doble
Sep 20, 20222 min read
Prepare for a better future
The lengthy period of hot weather put plants and animals under great stress and caused parched fields, dried up flowers, reduced fruit...
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Adrian Doble
Aug 19, 20222 min read
Dire Straits
August should be a month in which we can enjoy the best weather that Summer has to offer, but this year it has come with a menacing...
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Adrian Doble
Jul 20, 20222 min read
The hidden depths
What a wonderful time of year it is for bumblebee-spotters. There are fewer of the big queens on the wing but many more workers,...
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Adrian Doble
Jun 15, 20222 min read
A cool drink in the shade
We are now in the middle of summer and the temperatures have already reached comfortable heights although it is not so pleasant if you...
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Adrian Doble
May 16, 20222 min read
So many flowers, so little time
From March onwards we have been seeing queens of the Common carder bumblebee, Bombus pascuorum. Like the rest of her family, she has a...
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Adrian Doble
Mar 20, 20222 min read
Baby it’s cold outside
Some reference books suggest that bumblebees do not emerge from hibernation until outside temperatures reach 10C. They then shiver to...
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Adrian Doble
Feb 16, 20222 min read
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone…
If all the bumblebees die, what then? Other bees like solitary ones and honeybees are pollinators, but if they died too, we would be...
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Adrian Doble
Dec 15, 20212 min read
Bumblebee Aware - December 2021
So, where are all the bumblebees today? If you go for a walk in the countryside this month, you will probably not see any, nor will you...
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Adrian Doble
Nov 19, 20212 min read
Bumblebee Aware - November 2021
Do bumblebees make honey? Yes they do but only to feed their own family, whereas honeybees make it for a colony which may contain 100,000...
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Adrian Doble
Oct 10, 20212 min read
Bumblebee Aware - October 2021
When did you last hear or see a bumblebee? Most UK species have disappeared from our gardens by now...
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Adrian Doble
Sep 16, 20212 min read
Bumblebee Aware - September 2021
Have you noticed that the ivy is beginning to flower? There are already plenty of bees drinking the nectar and you can hear the bushes...
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Adrian Doble
Aug 14, 20212 min read
Bumblebee Aware - August 2021
What are the large bumblebees that we see foraging on our flowers with such enthusiasm this month? They look like the ones that have been...
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Adrian Doble
Jun 14, 20212 min read
Bumblebee Aware - June 2021
When the hotter weather arrived this month, it transformed our gardens and hedges into a visual feast of colours and shapes.
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Adrian Doble
May 22, 20212 min read
Bumblebee Aware - May 2021
Is it true that our bumblebees are suffering from Covid? Almost certainly not directly but perhaps they have as a result of...
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Adrian Doble
Apr 17, 20212 min read
Bumblebee Aware - April 2021
A common sight in some gardens and allotments, a few parks and woods is that of a large bumblebee flying low to the ground looking as if...
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