Hello I'm Nic Charlton and I'm going to show you what I do on a typical day working in
the field.
So I'm at my first field site, got my equipment in my bag and, of course, it's a glorious
day so I've got my hat!
Lets go...
Okay so I'm at the field site.
I've got my notebook to record my data and the first thing I'm going to do with this
little device is record the temperature and the wind speed.
So this is my first experimental patch today.
This is red campion, the flower that I look at and I'm going to sit here for 20 minutes
and observe any bumble bees that come to visit these flowers.
No bees this time.
Each of my fields' sites is alongside a field of cereal or a field of oilseed rape and at
each site I have a patch of red campion flowers and this patch here isn't doing very well.
Unfortunately, it has been nibbled by deer so we may have to leave this one.
Because all my patches of red campion are in pots one of the things I have to do every
time I come out is water them so I'm going to fill up these bottles.
The fieldwork that I'm doing is part of a PhD at the University of Bristol.
I'm looking at nectar robbing by bumblebees.
Nectar robbing is a behaviour whereby bees with short tongues bite a hole in the back
of a flower to get to the nectar...
...so I'm trying to find what are the circumstances which will increase or decrease robbery levels.
I do this by putting out patches of a flower called red campion next to different fields.
One field full of bright yellow flowers, another field of no flowers and I go back to those
patches and try to record how much robbing has happened in those patches.
I'm at my next field site, just stopped for some lunch.
I was thinking one of the nicest things about field work is the fact that you get outside
for most of the day and some of the wildlife you see - you see numerous insects, birds
- no mammals yet but you never know.
Milk break and then off to check the flowers.
This is the flower that gets robbed by bumble bees so I check the green part at the back
of the flower and look for neat little holes or semi circular little bites and that's a
sign of nectar robbing by bumble bees.
I have just found a wasp's nest in the ground.
One of those strange things you see while you're out doing field work.
Never seen that before.
I'm at my last site for the day.
Its been pretty good.
I've got some more data and the weather has been fine so after this one I'll drive back
home for a nice cup of tea.
We need a greater understanding of bees and their interactions with the environment because
they are such essential pollinators of crops and wild flowers and, in terms of crops, without
major pollinators like bees our food production would decrease, food would become more expensive
and this would affect a greater number of people in terms of food poverty.
They would not be able to afford essential nutritious foods that bumblebees help to produce.