The slow, lazy buzz of the bumblebee is a fundamental part of the Irish summer. These fat, furry, ponderous bees trundle from flower to flower, collecting pollen and nectar to support their growing colony. They liven up the summer garden, and provide an invaluable pollination service to the plants they….

A gardener at a Dublin park has rediscovered a bumblebee species last recorded in Ireland in 1926. Eddie Hill, who is an avid bee recorder, and regularly submits bee sightings to the National Bumblebee Monitoring scheme, noticed some odd looking bees feeding on flowers at St. Enda’s Park in Rathfarnam. After studying photographs and two….

We have 20 species of bumblebee in Ireland — 14 true bumblebees and 6  cuckoo bumblebees. It’s great to see their rotund furry forms bustling around the garden again with the onset of spring… but for the wildlife enthusiast they present a bit of a conundrum. Several of the most….