Discover the beauty and importance of our pollinators as you explore the Bee Pollinator Trail in Streamstown. This trail highlights the vital role bees play in our environment and how we can help protect them.
Developed by Westmeath County Council in conjunction with the National Biodiversity Data Centre, who coordinate the implementation of the All Ireland Pollinator Plan and supported by Streamstown Tidy village, this initiative aims to promote biodiversity and encourage positive actions for pollinators.
Irish bees are vital for maintaining biodiversity, supporting ecosystems, and ensuring the pollination of crops and wildflowers that sustain both wildlife and agriculture.
In Ireland, we have identified over 100 species of wild bees. Unfortunately, many of these species are in danger of extinction. The aim of projects like the Streamstown Pollinator Trail is to both support the bees directly by preserving habitats for them and to provide greater awareness among the general public about these hard-working and fascinating creatures.
Habitat preservation means:
If you have a garden at home you can manage it of (or part of it) in a similar way. It will mean less work for you and it’s much better for the living beings that we share the world with.
As you walk along this trail, look out for birds, animals, trees, shrubs, plants, insects, and spiders. These are all part of the ecosystem that is thriving here on the greenway. Close your eyes and listen for birdsong, the buzzing of bees, the crunching of leaves. Take a deep breath and inhale the seasonal scents.
Along the trail you’ll see 5 signposts with QR codes and illustrations of 5 of our native pollinator bees. Follow the QR code to learn more about these bees. If you don’t have a phone with you or you’d prefer to view the information at another time, it’s available at the bottom of this page.
As you walk along, keep an eye out for these flowers, which are key food plants for bees at different times of the year:
Spring:
Summer:
Autumn:
Winter:
These and other native plants and their flowers are important for feeding our pollinators, and may also be food plants for caterpillars, which will turn into butterflies and moths. After you identify some of these flowers on the trail, try to observe the various pollinators that visit them.
As we said earlier, there are over 100 known species of wild bees in Ireland, but they don’t all live in the same places! Some make their homes underground or in leaf litter, some live in holes in walls or ditches, some will make nests in trees. For the Streamstown project we’ve selected 5 species which have been seen in the area. There may well be other types of bees who live around here – if you practice observing the differences between species using this page as a guide it will help you to identify other species. More information on Ireland's bees can be found on the Biodiversity Ireland website.
Bees are very small and are constantly moving, so you may find it takes a bit of patience to properly observe and identify them, but once you start to see them properly you’ll quickly notice the features that distinguish the individual species. The key differences can be limited to one part of the insects body which can take keen observation to spot (e.g. Large Carder Bee vs. Common Carder Bee) or they can be quite obvious (e.g. Red-tailed bumblebee). Start by watching carefully and noticing the different parts and their markings.
We use the same naming system for the parts of their bodies as we would for other types of insects:
Really look at every bee you see, and ask these questions:
When the bee is feeding, it can be tricky to see the thorax, or even the abdomen, because these might be all the way inside the head of the flower, or the wings may be covering it. They don’t spend long in any one spot though, so if you’re patient you should get a chance to see the thorax and abdomen better when it’s moving between flowers. You’ll always be able to see their tails, though, no matter how engrossed they are in feeding.
Here are the bees to look out for on the Trail
Life cycle Solitary Bees https://pollinators.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Life-Cycle-Solitary-Bee_highres_infographic.pdf
Life cycle Bumble Bees https://pollinators.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Life-Cycle-Bumblebee_highres_infographic.pdf
Do Bumblebees sting?
Bumblebees can sting, but will only do it as a last resort if they feel threatened. If they start waving their front feet at you, they’re not saying ‘hello’ or being friendly – this is a sign that they feel threatened and you should move away. You should only ever observe them with your eyes – don’t try to pick them up or catch them.
Become a Citizen Scientist!
Take part in the Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme
In this scheme, volunteers walk a fixed 1-2km route once a month between March and October and record the diversity and abundance of bumblebees that they see. It is vital for tracking what is happening with wild pollinators in the landscape and can be used to assess the effectiveness of your local actions for pollinators when compared year on year.
Find some keen people and set up at least one Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme walk within your local community. The scheme is run by the National Biodiversity Data Centre who provide full support and training.
Submit annual Flower-Insect-Timed (FIT) Counts
Pollinating insects are in decline, but we need much more data to be able to track changes in their abundance. You can help by doing a Flower-Insect Timed Count (FIT count) to collect data on flower-visiting insects. FIT Counts are also a useful tool for measuring changes in your local biodiversity.
FIT Counts are very simple – watch a patch of flowers for 10 minutes on a warm, dry day and count how many insects visit. Because FIT counts are so simple, and don’t require any specialist knowledge, they also make a great activity to do with community groups and schoolchildren.
History of Jacks Stop – Streamstown railway station opened on 1 August 1851 and closed on 17 June 1963. The Midland Great Western Railway from Athlone to Mullingar connected Dublin, County Galway and County Mayo until 1987 when the line was closed.
The Mullingar to Athlone section of this rail line was developed into the Old Rail Trail which opened in 2015.
All images used with permission the artist Sheuvan Doherty
