BeeWalk Survey Scheme

Resources


Getting Started with BeeWalk:

Guidance document - the BeeWalk manual 

Online registration form - become a BeeWalker!

BeeWalk guidance videos - short tutorials guiding you through the website

Habitat & land use site details to help you record the habitat and land use on your transect (for assistance choosing habitat categories email beewalk@bumblebeeconservation.org

Health and safety guidance  - guidance on carrying out bumblebee surveys with your health and safety in mind 

Monthly recording form  for recording the bees on your transect

Data Policy  BeeWalk data sharing policy 

Habitat & Land use list  

Photography guide  to help you take pictures of bumblebees that will maximise the chances of having them identified

Identifying Bumblebees:


Recorded online ID sessions with Dr Richard Comont and Clare Flynn - view a range of full online identification sessions, beginner and intermediate, as well as an introduction to bumblebee ecology and surveying

Quick intro to identification - a mini guidance video on getting started with identification of our common bumblebee species

Big 8 ID guide - A4 guide to our common bumblebee species (pdf download) 

Cuckoo bumblebee guide - A4 guide to our six cuckoo bumblebee species (pdf download)

BBCT What's that bumblebee App

BeeID App

British & Irish Bumblebees App

Steve Falk's magnificent bumblebee Flickr pages

The Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society website has a comprehensive gallery and ID guides for download and a facebook page for ID help 

The Natural History Museum's (Paul Williams') bumblebee section (includes colour pattern keys)

 

Bumblebees of Cumbria

Bumblebees of Cornwall and Scilly

Bumblebees of Devon  

Bumblebees of Suffolk

Bumblebees of Warwickshire 

iSpot, a brilliant website for ID of anything wild

 

Books: 

  • Gammans, N, Comont, R.F., Morgan, S.C., Perkins, G. (2018) Bumblebees: An Introduction. Bumblebee Conservation Trust. ISBN 0995773904

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s first book, covering field ID of all 25 British bumblebee species and based on ten years’ experience of training beginners in bumblebee ID

  • Lewington, R (2023) Pocket Guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4729-9359-5

The newest ID guide, a very easy to use pocket guide with fantastic illustrations, which has become a go to favourite. 

  • Falk, S (2015) Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain & Ireland (Field Guides). British Wildlife Publishing. ISBN 978-1910389034

This in-depth book provides a comprehensive guide to all bee species with the addition of keys, including excellent coverage of bumblebees. Beautifully illustrated by Richard Lewington.

  • Edwards, M. & Jenner, M. (2009). Field Guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain & Ireland.  Ocelli Ltd. ISBN 0954971310

An excellent pocket guide, including a quick colour pattern key to UK species

  • Prys-Jones, O. E. and Corbet, S. A. (2011 - revised edition). Bumblebees (Naturalists' Handbook). Pelagic Publishing. ISBN 1907807063

A really useful book with a slightly more scientific leaning than Edwards & Jenner, including full keys (inc genitalia)

  • Benton, T (2006) Bumblebees. Collins New Naturalist Library 98. Harper Collins. ISBN 0007174500

An excellent in-depth summary, including species descriptions and a very good key to British bumblebees.

 

Surveying equipment:

Bumblebees sometimes need close examination to be reliably identified to species, which means catching them. See our video on how to safely catch and pot a bumblebee for indentification purposes

Any butterfly net works (we use beginners nets such as these on our training courses). A wide range of pots such as these are available for holding and viewing your bumblebee whilst you identify it. Some people use a queen marking cage (used by beekeepers to paint a mark on queen honeybees) to hold your bee without harming it while you identify it. A hand lens is useful to see the finer details of your bumblebee.  

There are several entomological suppliers online: 

Watkins and Doncaster

Anglian Lepidoptera Supplies

NHBS