A bumblebee seen in an Edinburgh garden on 15th February is the earliest ever recorded in Scotland.
The bee was not a lone sighting - others were also reported from Glasgow, Inverness and Fife a few days later. The first bees are normally reported around the middle of March in Scotland, making these records exceptionally early. Other records of early emergence and breeding in Scotland include several pairs of blackbirds (
Turdus merula) already nesting and peacock (
Inachis io) and small tortoiseshell (
Aglais urticae) butterflies recorded more than two months early.
The early records are due to the same weather phenomenon which has brought exceptionally mild spells of February weather all over Britain and the attendant early nature recordings (e.g.
early swallows and house martins in southern England).
