White Tailed Bumble Bee

Had a lovely time today in Chippenham, meeting up with Emma, a friend I used to work with about 12 years ago. Because I was going on the train, I had decided that a train blip would be the order of the day but when I got home, Mr. HCB said he had hoed the flower bed, so I went out to to look at his handiwork and there was my blip!

Our foxgloves are looking rather splendid, and on one of them was this white tailed bumble bee. (I'm sure someone correct me if this is wrong!) It sat for ages on one of the pink foxgloves whilst many others were in and out of the flowers collecting pollen. I guess this one must have been a male, because when I read up about them, it transpires that males tend to sit lazily on flowers, because they do not have to collect pollen for the nest, while in contrast, the females tend to be much busier, flying quickly from flower to flower, and rarely waste time resting.

When I commented to Mr. HCB that this reminded me of the human species, I was amazed to hear him grunt quite grumpily at me! I wonder why?

We have tried, over the years, to ensure that we have plants and flowers in our garden that attract bees, and they certainly seem to like what is there at the moment. It is a well known fact that if bees do not pollinate our plants, many flowers would not produce seeds and also our fruit and vegetables would not produce such good harvests.

"If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth,
man would only have four years left to live."
Albert Einstein 1879-1955