Country diary: the queen bee is a ray of sunshine in a gloomy May

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: Spring has been hard for insects, but the garden bumblebee is here, piloted by an ancient impulseThe queen makes a solar landing. During the briefest moment of shine in the wash cycle of our local low-pressure area, a queen garden bumblebee, Bombus hortorum, settles on a dandelion. The flower's brilliance draws insects to its gravitational field and the promise of mining the flaring florets for nectar and pollen.But this burning sun of a flower is cold comfort. May has been hard: blossom battered by hail, frosts, rain, rain and more rain. The gardens the bumblebee gets her name from have saturated, "can't get on it" soil, struggling seedlings and soggy blooms. Birdsong is muted, wildflowers thin. The fields are sodden, the rivers close to flood. I suppose we're lucky we haven't had a drought and the hills aren't on fire, but we have made insect life hard enough without a washout spring. Continue reading...