Eye of the storm

There's a luxurious patch of ivy growing along the top of the tall old farm wall that borders our yard, which flowers later than any other ivy in the area. Given that it's south-facing, I have absolutely no idea why this should be, but it provides a final feast for all our pollinators, and today it was literally buzzing with bees and flies. And there in the middle of the mêlée was this Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum), sound asleep while the noise and kerfuffle swirled around her.

I say "she" because I think that this is a new season queen, in which case she will have been feeding up in preparation for hibernation when tiredeness suddenly overcame her. But in truth I'm pretty poor at distinguishing queen, drone, and worker bumblebees unless they're clearly sexually dimorphic, and in Common Carders they all look much alike. I keep promising myself that one day I will put some effort into learning the differences, but today is not that day.

R: C6, D2.