Dear Rosemary,
Your email is very timely. Only about a week ago I thought to myself there were fewer bees around than I had expected to see.
Today the situation was far worse. Not a single bee around the flowering rosemary which they love. None in the garden that I could see anywhere. On my walk to the shops I kept my eyes open. One neighbour had a couple of bees around a native bush with a white/pink flower, but my bush of the same variety which usually has a lot of bees had none. I saw no other bees on any flowers on my walk to and from the shops.
On 15 September I photographed a very drowsy bee in the early evening, and it was obvious it was not going to make it back to the hive that night. Perhaps it was sick?
I would like to hear observations any one else has made on the subject of bees. They are pretty damned important animals.
Cheers
Margaret.
From: Rosemary Blemings [
Sent: Monday, 6 October 2014 2:11 PM
To: Margaret Leggoe
Subject: Invertebrates
Hi Margaret,
Some time ago an insect "sub-group" emerged on the COG email line. Queries about invertebrates and insects in particular were voluntarily answered by those people. This was an excellent "service" and increased the potential for more COG people to morph into naturalists whilst enjoying birds.
Obviously there are worries about honeybee numbers but I wondered whether there is a natural lack of hoverflies at the moment or whether they just haven't hatched yet.
We have an Eriostemon (Philotheca myoporoides) in flower and normally it's full of hoverflies with some bees. Currently numbers of these insects seem very/worryingly low.
Even the swathes of Capeweed usually attract hoverflies but not this spring.
Would you have any comments, please?
