September bumblebees

Where do bumblebees go in September?

You don't see as many bumblebees in late summer but they haven't all disappeared. 

Where to look?

  4 places you could try

1 Ivy

IVY is in fruit throughout September so you could look there but just at the moment wasps and hoverflies seem to dominate:

There are some bumblebees,

 I wonder if wasps are competing with bees and winning, though I think the balance may change as wasps die back in autumn.

2 Garden and wasteland flowers: 

such as the ever abundant Buddleia 

And lavendar

  But also wasteland plants like green alkanet and white deadnettle that are attracting common carder bees:

And of course garden centres and open gardens. 

                                     3 Beside streams:

The much maligned alien plant which aggressively colonises streams and rivers.  In Somerset this week, this is one of the best places to look: the tallest annual in Britain has established a niche: Himalayan Balsam, Impatiens glandulifera

 It may be a musty-smelling invader that flings its seeds explosively up to 4 metres through the air but it's an ideal source of nectar.
In Somerset you find Common carder bees and white-tailed bumblebees climbing inside the policeman helmet-shaped flowers. 

                                     4 In lawns and in the undergrowth:
You might look in the undergrowth, where queen bees are looking for places to hibernate.

Here's a white-tailed queen bumblebee burrowing a hole in a lawn in Somerset.