A Sting in the Tale

A French Garden has blogged today about bees nesting in her "Bee Hotels"....
and we have been watching some of the same activity with our ones here...
blog post will follow soon..
but on the same theme, excerpts from A Sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 all this week...
each has been a delight to listen to...
we thoroughly recommend listening to them.
Use the "Listen Again" service to do do so.
Episode 1 is here... you have 4 days left to listen.

Our bee block being filled...

If the broadcast excerpts are anything to go by, the book will be a fascinating read... Dave Goulson is the founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and one of the UK's most respected conservationists...
to quote directly from the book review pages...

Dave Goulson has always been obsessed with wildlife, from his childhood menagerie of exotic pets and dabbling in experimental taxidermy to his groundbreaking research into the mysterious ways of the bumblebee and his mission to protect our rarest bees.

Once commonly found in the marshes of Kent, the short-haired bumblebee now only exists in the wilds of New Zealand, the descendants of a few queen bees shipped over in the nineteenth century. Dave Goulson's passionate drive to reintroduce it to its native land is one of the highlights of a book that includes exclusive research into these curious creatures, history's relationship with the bumblebee and advice on how to protect it for all time.

One of the UK's most respected conservationists and the founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Goulson combines Gerald Durrell-esque tales of a child's growing passion for nature with a deep insight into the crucial importance of the bumblebee. He details the minutiae of life in their nests, sharing fascinating research into the effects intensive farming has had on our bee populations and on the potential dangers if we are to continue down this path.

The book is available from the NHBS and Amazon... on the Amazon page you can look inside, too.... the book reads well!