{"id":4944,"date":"2026-06-04T19:37:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=4944"},"modified":"2026-06-07T16:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T15:48:24","slug":"a-bee-safari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=4944","title":{"rendered":"A &#8216;bee safari&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/beesafari1.jpg.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4951\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/beesafari1.jpg.jpeg 1600w, https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/beesafari1.jpg-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/beesafari1.jpg-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/beesafari1.jpg-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/beesafari1.jpg-624x351.jpeg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What you need<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Flowers &#8211; any green space, from a park to a garden, allotment, or cemetary. Anywhere where there are plenty of different bee-friendly flowers or shrubs in bloom<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A dry, calm, warm day is best. It doesn&#8217;t have to be sunny, although that helps. If it&#8217;s over 27C, bumblebees may not forage, so best to do it early in the morning when it is cooler<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>An hour to observe the bees<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Bees to See in (whatever month you do the safari) guide &#8211; from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzz-newsletter.co.uk\/\">Buzz newsletter<\/a>, Instagram <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alison_urbanbees\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alison_urbanbees\/\">alison_urbanbees<\/a> or the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\">Urban Bees website<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A pen to tick off the bees you see on the guide<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A smartphone to take photos of bees that you can try to identify on a App, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inaturalist.org\/\">iNaturalist<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=org.inaturalist.seek&amp;hl=en_GB\">Seek<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Optional extras<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A hand lens so you can get up close (if the bee sticks around that long!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pentax.eu\/products\/sport-optics-binoculars-papilio-series\">Macro binoculars<\/a> <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A net and small glass tube if you are confident about catching small insects without hurting them and putting them in a tube for identification (something I haven&#8217;t mastered)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhbs.com\/field-guide-to-the-bees-of-great-britain-and-ireland-book?bkfno=245313&amp;ca_id=1495&amp;adlocale=uk&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=231032408&amp;gbraid=0AAAAAD_IBbhv1CpRAHvXvo8nRf4vr1aEw&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwxITRBhBYEiwA6mZm7YaLsBsqgw4v2zvwb9DpE8XsWUNqOfQRt7O6p10kJgy0VYFVy02YVRoC1_IQAvD_BwE\">Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland<\/a> &#8211; although it&#8217;s a hefty tome, so I leave it at home and cross reference any photos I&#8217;ve taken of bees I couldn&#8217;t identify in the field<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhbs.com\/the-bee-spotters-guide-book?bkfno=269915&amp;ca_id=1495&amp;adlocale=uk&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=231032408&amp;gbraid=0AAAAAD_IBbhv1CpRAHvXvo8nRf4vr1aEw&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwxITRBhBYEiwA6mZm7Sv-8bcu6G9BBeqGmI0ZQeZ_nHw3uhTFI3R4AtGBCT7CW5Q1kVx4yxoCHlYQAvD_BwE\">Bee Spotter&#8217;s Guide<\/a> &#8211; an illustrated pocket book that may help you to identify a few bees.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Citizen Science<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do your &#8216;bee safari&#8217; for Bumblebee Conservation Trust by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/beewalk.org.uk\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/beewalk.org.uk\/\">Bee Walker<\/a> and record bumblebees you see each month in the same area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Urban Bees leads bee safaris for a number of clients&#8217; staff including Boodle Hatfield (pictured above), Weil law firm, Price Waterhouse Coopers and the Friends&#8217; of Regents Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To learn more about our bee safaris contact alison@urbanbees.co.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What you need Optional extras Citizen Science Do your &#8216;bee safari&#8217; for Bumblebee Conservation Trust by becoming a Bee Walker and record bumblebees you see each month in the same area. Urban Bees leads bee safaris for a number of clients&#8217; staff including Boodle Hatfield (pictured above), Weil law firm, Price Waterhouse Coopers and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4944"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4975,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944\/revisions\/4975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}