Bishy barnabee

May 11, 2020 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

As a child growing up in Suffolk Bishy barnabee was name we all knew the Ladybird by, and seems to be used in both Norfolk and Suffolk by most people when referring to them. You could actually live in Bishy barnabee way in Norwich or one of the roads off it like Ladybird way or Pollywiggle close, so at least it seems the name will be used in the future in one way if we were ever to stop using it in our everyday language.

But where did the name Bishy barnabee come from? There was actually a Bishop Barnaby who lived in the Fens and was apparently burned at the Stake so could this be a connection to the nursery rhyme which is said to have it’s origins in Norfolk “Bishy Bishy Barney Bee, Fly away home, Your house is on fire, And your children all gone”.

Another theory is the name is believed to be derived from the 16th century Bishop Edmund Bonner who lived from 1500 to 1569 , and was known notoriously as ‘Bloody Bonner’ for his ruthless persecution of Protestants under Queen Mary. Originally A vicar in East Dereham, Norfolk he became Bishop of London in 1539, so again another Norfolk connection.

One last Norfolk ryhme was used by Norfolk girls as the Ladybird was seen as a prophet of love and the young lady would hold the Ladybird in her hand and chant “Bishy, Bishy Barnabee do tell me when my wedding be”.

Whatever the origin of the name Bishy barnabee it seems to have a religious connection be it Bishop Barnaby or the fact that some say it was because the Catholic Bishops wore cloaks of red, the name Ladybird is said to come from ‘Our Lady’s bird’ referring to the Virgin Mary who was thought to always wear a red cloak and the seven spots on the ladybird were the seven joys and sorrows that the Virgin Mary was said to have embroidered on that red cloak.

The connection to the Virgin Mary and her cloak with the seven joys and sorrows would make you think that there was only the one species (7 spot) Ladybird to be found in Great Britain and Ireland, but there are in fact 47 Ladybirds to be found in the British Isles, not all are Red and not all have spots, The 7 spot is the more numerous with 37129 recorded but it is decreasing, followed by the Halequin ladybird a recent addition to our British list from Asia with 34234 recorded and increasing, compare these two species with Nephus bisignatus with 1 recorded, all these records were from the BRC ladybird database for each species (ordered by number of 10km squares) from 1975 to 2015 which can be found in the fantastic book Field Guide to the Ladybirds of Great Britain and Ireland by Helen Roy and Peter Brown, this book gives you all the information you would want for identification of each species ( and you will be please to know all but a handful can be found in East Anglia ), on each species there is a colour plate page with the Adult, larva and a life size and some are tiny, and in case you were wondering Nephus bisignatus the length is 1.5mm-2mm and is black and the one record was in Rye Harbour, East Sussex in 1996.

References
Field Guide to the Ladybirds of Great Britain and Ireland, Roy, Brown and Lewington, Bloomsbury, 2018, ISBN HB: 978-1-4729-3567-0, PB: 978-1-4729-3568-7

Hibernating somewhere near you

January 7, 2015 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

On this cold dull January day, it may seem funny to talk about butterflies, but somewhere near you may be a hibernating butterfly, maybe in your shed or your garage in some dark corner.

Four species usually overwinter in Great Britain the brimstone, usually the first butterfly seen on a warm Spring day and it’s colour may have given us the name ‘butterfly’ as it is a yellow butterfly, the other three are comma, peacock and small tortoiseshell, but over the last few years they have been joined by a fifth butterfly the red admiral which would usually have migrated South to warmer parts of Europe, this is due to the mild Winters we have been having.

On warm days we may sometimes see butterflies flying in January and February, I once saw a peacock butterfly on December 26th on a very mild and sunny day.

Very colourful butterfly feeding on flowers

Peacock butterfly

Unfortunately some of these butterflies that we may see in the early months of the year January, February and March may not survive mainly because any cold snaps will kill off any early blossom and flowers so cutting off their food source.

Red admiral butterfly

Most of the red admiral butterflies that have overwintered in the last few years do not survive but those that do have their numbers boosted by red admirals that migrate from central Europe in the Spring, but as we seem to be going through a spell of cold then mild days I bet it will not be long before we see a butterfly flying if not outside but at your garage or shed window.

The Humble Bee

November 13, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

About three years ago I decided to start looking at bumblebees, thinking it would not be hard, but I then found in the UK alone we have 24 species, (We used to have 26 but two are now extinct), 8 are quite common, one, the Great yellow Bumblebee can only be found on the north coast of Scotland.

I joined the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, which was established because of serious concerns that Bee populations had crashed, given the fact that bumblebees pollinate our crops and wildflowers this should be a concern to all of us.

I quickly learnt via the BBCT, how to identify Bumblebees,

White-tailed Bumblebee

also about the life cycle of the Bumblebee, in a nutshell from as early as February, the queen will emerge from hibernation on a warm day from an old hole in the ground where she will search for a nest site, she will then search for pollen and take to nest she will lay her first eggs and This first brood of offspring are all ‘worker’ females, then later the her brood of offspring be females and males and some of these females will be queens which will survive the winter unlike the worker females and males which will die in the first year as well as the old Queen, it is only Queens that live more than a year.

More information about identification and life-cycle can be found on the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website.

But one easy Bumblebee to identify ie a newcomer to the UK from Europe, the Tree Bumblebee it is the only one that is Ginger, black with a white bottom.