Busy bees

I was out in the garden today and spotted lots of different bees on our lavender, some of which looked very unusual. I took lots of (very blurry) photos before running back in the house and trying to ID them (using basic photos on the bumblebee conservation trust website). I think the reason for the different patterns is because many males were out, and they look different. They do not bring resources back to the nest, instead only taking enough nectar for themselves in order to attempt to mate with females. I think this one was a male Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) and it looked absolutely beautiful. The extra is a better photo of its yellow face. I think I also found a male White- tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum). I could be completely wrong though!

However, after a whole summer of not really knowing my bees, I bought an ID book on amazon earlier today. It will come tomorrow (amazon prime is wonderful) and I will hopefully be able to get much better with my identification skills! 

I also managed to shortlist 30 PhD projects down to 6. I need to submit 3 so not much narrowing down to do now! I'll send out emails to potential supervisors and will read a few of their papers tomorrow.