Bee Happy - It's World Bee Day

20 May has been designated by the United Nations as World Bee Day, a day to celebrate the wonderful creatures that bees are and the contribution they make to our lives through pollinating food plants and to draw attention to the problems they face.

20 May was chosen for World Bee Day as it coincides with the birthday of Anton Janša, who in the 18th century pioneered modern beekeeping techniques in his native Slovenia and praised the bees for their ability to work so hard, while needing so little attention.

Today has been dull and humid, not the best weather for seeing bees but this patch of shrubbery in Gardners Crescent Gardens did, on closer inspection reveal quite a few bees

The bees were trying their best to keep close to the vegetation and were really tricky to take photos of, but here's an early bumblebee

 and moving closer in you can see the bands of orange and yellow on this species

 there were several tree bumblebees too, a new species to the UK, but not an invasive

These are both very handsome species as well as doing their bit to pollinate wild and garden flowers.
There were also some common carder bees too, but I wasn't able to catch them on camera today.

Have you seen any bees today?

You can find links to some useful resources for World Bee Day here and advice on how to help bees in Scotland from Scottish Wildlife Trust here.