Moorcroft Shrill Carder Bees

The RSPB Rainham Marshes Collection

Just beyond the Thames Barrier in East London, RSPB Rainham Marshes, once a Ministry of Defence firing range, now explodes with wildlife which thrives on the ancient grazing mashes of the Thames Estuary. Its mix of shallow lagoons, scrub, lowland grazing marsh dissected by ditches, reedbed and woodland provides habitat for a wide range of birds and scarce wetland plants and insects.

The mysterious and ecologically important RSPB Rainham Marshes, which set the natural drama for Charles Dickens to write Great Expectations, is a wetland world of mists and mud flats of some 870 astounding acres. With sheer pride, Moorcroft now unveils this great RSPB success story in the new RSPB Rainham Marshes Collection, allowing you to quite literally stroll along the boardwalks and viewing platforms. It is here where old shooting butts become viewing posts for herons; teals bathe in tranquil lagoons; Red-Listed birds, like Lapwings, thrive along the muddy banks, and curious little Water Voles scuttle within the reed beds as the Shrill Carder bees buzz in air filled with Ruddy Darters and Brimstones.

Shrill Carder bees

Designer: Vicky Lovatt

Shape: 125/4

Edition: Numbered

RSPB Rainham Marshes is committed to saving the rarest bumblebee in England and Wales, the Shrill Carder bee, whose high-pitched buzz is an important part of our natural heritage. It now only exists in five isolated populations, with the bees at Rainham Marshes along the Thames Estuary now nesting in its tussocky grassland. All bumblebees rely on flowers for food in the form of nectar and pollen, and a continuous supply of suitable forage throughout the colony lifecycle is needed for survival. Rainham Marshes holds an abundance of fodder vetch and bird’s-foot trefoils, allowing the bees to thrive.

As a design on a round lidded box, Vicky provides a rare aerial view of the Shrill Carder bee, with wings open and nipped back, as they feast on the mustard-yellow claws of bird’s-foot trefoil, showcasing their pale grey-yellow colouring, black band of hair between their wings and unusual reddish-orange tail.