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Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum)

 

Inga Ilves, nature photographer from Pärnumaa:

 

I started observing and photographing bumblebees this spring. During the whole of the summer white-tailed bumblebees (Bombus lucorum), tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum) and common carder bees were probably most frequent. There were also sand bumblebees (Bombus veteranus), shrill carder bees (Bombus sylvarum), the Bombus soroeensis, red-shanked carder bees (Bombus ruderarius), garden bumblebees (Bombus hortorum), and buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris). I saw least of the Bombus schrencki and great yellow bumblebee (Bombus distinguendus), just a few times. Cuckoo bumblebees appeared in the second half of summer.  

 

The hot period in summer was probably a drawback. It seems that bumblebees like  cooler weather than 30 degrees. On hot days they moved around in early mornings and later in evenings. There was also a bumblebee nest in the garden. When I re-stacked the woodpile I found a mousehole next to it from which bumblebees flew in and out. Other similar nest sites were in different places, for instance at the wall of a rubble stone building.

 

Bumblebees were in general amicable as photo models. Still, a few to whom I came too close on photographing started circling around me, which seemed like a warning. In such a case I left in order not to disturb. In contrast, cuckoo bumblebees were phlegmatic. They could even be lifted on a plant stem to get a better photo.

 

Tiit Jürisson, wildlife photographer from Viljandimaa:

 

For me this bumblebee summer was the first one – I have never before photgraphed these splendid insects nor paid any attention to the particular species. My favourite place for observing bumblebees became the Varesemägede Landscape Conservation Area close to Viljandi. Bumblebees seem really to like this area, it is rich in species as well as in numbers. Particularly in the second part of summer there were amazingly many cuckoo bumblebees. At that time about half of the observed bumblebees were Bombus campestris or B. rupestris.

 

Meelis Uustal, Project Manager of the Looduskalender bumblebee project (West Virumaa):

 

I have studied bumblebees in my home garden already since many years. Although this summer was not favourable for the development of bumblebee families I can in no way complain of a shortage of bumblebees in the garden. True, there were no massive numbers of any species but for instance in a large clump of oregano 5 species could easily be seen in action, in addition several species of solitary bees and a large number of honeybees. This year I saw altogether 13 species of bumblebees in the garden, 4 of them for the first time.

 

In the beginning the Bombus semenoviellus caused much headache because despite all agreeing characteristics it was difficult to believe that such a rare species might have found precisely my garden. The female bumblebee liked the flowers of the Welsh onion best, the little worker however visited the oregano. A couple of times I saw the Bombus schrencki on the hyssop flowers; it did not care much for the oregano flowering alongside it. There were plenty of the cuckoo bumblebee Bombus campestris that could be observed dreaming on platform-shaped flowers that did not demand much acrobatics – chives, Welsh onion, French marigold etc.

 

 

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