17th April 2020

Female Common Redstart

Creative Commons - credit Людмила Голуб

This morning a small bird flew into the kitchen window - it turned out to be a redstart.

Fortunately it recovered from avine concussion) and flew off after some minutes. If you look carefully you can see the russet tail which is usually what you notice as redstarts fly away from you.

Bombus terrestris / lucorum (group) seen on Flowering Currant at East Tempar.

Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Creative Commons - credit Vera Buhl

So what I saw were bees with white tips to their abdomens which might have made them white-tailed bumblebees or buff-tailed bumblebees. Confusingly buff tipped bumblebees can also have white tips.

Creative Commons - credit S.Rae

Anthony McCluskey (Butterfly Conservation and Formerly Bumblebee Conservation) provided the following comment -

It's one of the White-tailed bumblebee complex species - three species with white tails which are almost identical! The least likely is Bombus lucorum as that's more of a southern species, so this is either Bombus magnus or Bombus cryptarum - but very hard to tell apart without a good photo, and even then it's uncertain. More info on this tricky group here:

https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/white-tailed-bumblebees/cryptic-bumblebee/

At the Schiehallion limestone pavement you can hear Blackcock lekking. There is evidently a small Lek towards Schiehallion.

Lekking Blackcock

Creative Commons - public domain - Archibald Thorburn

There are Tree Bumblebees feeding on the flowering currant at a West Tempar.

Tree Bumblebee

Creative Commons - credit David Short

Bumblebee Conservation id guide

A pied wagtail followed sheep at East Tempar to feed on disturbed invertebrates.

Pied Wagtail

Creative Commons - credit Crackers93