Our Wildlife bloggers say: "Pardon the weeds, we're feeding the bees"

Hello everyone, the TAPS Wildlife Group here.

Here at Dereham Hub we're supporting the #BeesLoveBreckland campaign, and last week we started some bee spotting, after having a large number of tree bees taking up residence in a disused bird box. They have now all gone, but we still have plenty of different bee species around our grounds and managed to spot six; buff tailed bumble bee, white tailed bumble bee, early bumble bee, garden bumble bee, red tailed bumble bee and the good old honey bee.

We were really pleased to see so many different species, as you will know bees are in trouble at the moment and we need to help them by leaving plants and flowers and creating a bee friendly garden. There are more than 250 species of bee in the UK, but sadly due to habitat loss, climate change and the use of pesticides our bee numbers are dropping. In East Anglia 17 species have already gone extinct and many others are at risk.

There are lots of things you can do to help bees which you can find out about online at places like the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website.  

We have also started butterfly spotting as part of the Big Butterfly Count (16 July – 8 August) and will tell you more about that next time.

Until then, keep wildlife watching!

Helen, Justin, Mark, Tim and Claire