Stew-Sat & Bumblebees

1st April 2023

Stewardship Saturday, or Stewsat, regularly attracts 30 or more volunteers once a month.  These good people generously donate their time to get involved in carrying out jobs on site; ranging from splitting wood for fires, finishing a Sussex fence and rustic gate to the Chalet walk, foraging for nettles and wild garlic for cooking soup for lunch, to just helping me add to the deer fence round Bat Park.  They are of all ages - from babes-in-arms to teenagers, to whole families, to those of us in the twilight of our years.

In the afternoon we are joined by Dave Goulson, our local (and national) bumble bee expert, to go on a bumble bee walk. Despite it being a little cold he identifies several queens of Buff-tailed, White-tailed, Common, Tree and even one of the Cuckoo Bumblebees found in the UK. The last of these actually enter a colony of bumblebees, kill the queen and play the tyrant with the workers forcing them to look after the newcomer's offspring.  Not only humans can play the tyrant it seems.