Close Encounter with a Carder

Yesterday, Tuesday 25 February, was much chillier and much less sunny where I live than Monday, a gorgeous warm day, was. The maximum temperature was only 9C, and in the wind it felt colder. The sun came out occasionally but not for long, and mostly it was a bit grey, so not a great day for seeing bumblebees or other insects. Typically February, really, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much. I just love to see them as much as possible.

The only creature I did see was the darling little common carder bumblebee from my last post. She spent Monday evening and night curled up in one of my crocuses, which was just as well as we had a couple of spells of heavy rain, and being inside the flower kept her safe and dry. Yesterday, in the late morning, I saw that she’d crawled out of the crocus, and in the early afternoon I saw her again. She was clearly unable to fly off as it was too cold, so she was ‘stuck’ on my crocuses, and I watched her trying to get into a flower. Unfortunately, because of the low temperature and minimal sunshine, the flower was closed up, and she couldn’t get in.

Below, little one trying unsuccessfully to climb into a crocus.

I was a bit worried, because we had a forecast of a few hours of heavy rain starting sometime on Tuesday evening or in the early hours of Wednesday (it’s pouring down as I type this on Wednesday morning). She couldn’t fly away and find shelter, and according to the forecast, the temperature wasn’t going to get any higher and the sun wasn’t going to come out properly all day, so the crocuses were unlikely to open. Thankfully, one of my crocuses had opened up to a brief period of sunshine, but only one, and it was in another pot a few feet away. I couldn’t see how little one would manage to get there under her own steam, and wondered if she’d let me help her.

I put my index finger next to her, and she used her antennae to explore my fingernail and beyond. Evidently deciding that everything was OK, she climbed onto my finger. It felt amazing to have her six tiny little feet pattering on my skin.

I carried her over to the one crocus that was open.

Quickly getting the idea, she scrambled off my finger into the flower.

She soon made herself at home.

I left her in peace, and went back inside the house. An hour or so later, I went back, and the crocus was mostly closed. Just her head and antennae were visible. (You can see from the pic that the sky was quite bright at that point, but it wasn’t sunny.)

The next time I went back, the crocus was fully closed, and judging by the forecast, it will remain so until at least this afternoon, when we might get some sunshine (or might not). The precious little bee will stay dry during all the hours of rain we’re forecast to have today, and I hope I see her again very soon.