Join Annie & Gen, from Skills for Bees: Scotland & Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms projects to search for rare bees around the Glenlivet Estate.

Surveying Broken-belted bumblebees & Small scabious mining bee at Glenlivet Tickets, Sun 21 Aug 2022 at 10:00 | Eventbrite 

We'll be keeping a close eye in the meadows and heaths for the scarce Broken-belted bumblebee (Bombus soroeensis) and the Small scabious mining bee (Andrena marginata). The data that we collect during these field sessions will help fill our knowledge gaps and could help inform future conservation work to help bees in the Cairngorms.

The day will begin with a quick in-the-field recap on our rare target species and how to identify it. We will then spend the rest of the day surveying the heathland and grassland of Glenlivet estate. Exact locations will be confirmed nearer the time. This survey day will require a reasonable level of fitness, as we may be walking to survey sites across rough ground.

Please note that this field session is planned to be outdoors and therefore subject to reasonable weather. The field session may be cancelled or re-arranged at short notice if the forecast is not bumblebee-friendly!

Please be aware that at this event, we may be catching (and releasing) bees to take a closer look for identification purposes. We may also be looking at dead bumblebees from an extensive, historical reference collection which was donated to the project for educational purposes, and bees that have been killed humanely in addition to those which have died naturally.

If you have any questions about the day, please email annie.ives@bumblebeeconservation.org.

............................................................................................................

Skills for Bees: Scotland is a Bumblebee Conservation Trust project which aims to promote bumblebee surveying and monitoring in the Cairngorms National Park.

Through online workshops, in-person field surveys and continuing support for volunteers, Skills for Bees: Scotland will upskill people living in, working in and generally enjoying the Cairngorms National Park to look out for and look after bumblebees.

............................................................................................................

Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms is a partnership project, set up to learn more about several invertebrate species and their distribution across the Cairngorms National Park. The current focus species are: northern silver stiletto fly, Kentish glory moth, pine hoverfly, northern February red stonefly, dark bordered beauty moth and small scabious mining bee. These are six of the UK’s rarest insect species and the Cairngorms National Park is an important stronghold for all of them. This project hopes to improve their conservation fortunes by recruiting local volunteers to help survey for them, as well as working with landowners to ensure important habitat is protected for these species. The project partners are RSPB Scotland, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Buglife Scotland, Butterfly Conservation Scotland, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and Nature Scot