First bumblebee

The weather has been amazingly mild for mid February and the insects have been taking advantage.  Yesterday I saw my first bumblebee of the year in the garden, a newly emerged queen buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris.  She was fuelling up on clematis cirrhosa.  

I haven't recorded the precise date of the first bumblebee in my garden in previous years but I am sure this is very early.  I checked with my garden records in the BTO Garden BirdWatch, which also records insects and other fauna. My first record of a bumblebee there was in week 12 in 2016, in week 11 in 2017, in week 15 in 2018 ( a very cold spring).  We are now in week 7 so this is 4-8 weeks earlier than the last three years.  What is also amazing is that new sightings of bumblebees have only appeared on the UK Bees, Wasps and Ants Facebook page in the last three days from the south of England.  I would normally expect us to be a few weeks behind up here.

The forecast looks set fair for the next couple of weeks so I expect the bumblebees will make the most of it.  Let's hope the weather doesn't catch them out.