Wildflower meadows help endangered bee to make a comeback on Somerset National Trust estate
An endangered bee is making a comeback on a Somerset National Trust estate with the help of wildflower-rich meadows.
Wildlife charities Buglife and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust have designated Lytes Cary Manor and estate as one of two "exemplary" sites for the rare shrill carder bee.
The bee that gets its name from its high pitched buzz has suffered significant declines since the 1950s, and is now only found in a handful of locations in southern England and South Wales.
Like many bees, and other important pollinators, the shrill carder has suffered from the disappearance of 97% of the country's wildflower meadows since the Second World War.
The designation of Lytes Cary as an exemplary site for the bee comes afteralmost a decade of work by volunteers, staff and farm tenants on the 361-acre mixed farming estate to recreate wildflower-rich areas.
Arable fields have been turned into meadows and large, wildflower-rich margins have been put in around the remaining fields of crops.
It is part of the Trust's wider work on its land to create more than 2,470 acres of flower-rich grasslands as part of efforts to boost nature in the countryside.