Flowering willows and Gorse are important for many insects around this time of year, including bees and hoverflies. As Well as flowers of blaeberry (or bilberry) queens of the Mountain or Blaeberry Bumblebee are one of the easiest Bumblebees to distinguish.
An article in Mountain Views the Spring Summer 2025 newsletter of the North East Mountain Trust (Bumblebee-bagging in the Cairngorms by Annie Ives (Project Officer: Skills for Bees (Scotland) for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust) features this bumblebee. It describes Bombus monticola as "very distinctive and easy to recognise". Anyone visiting Munros & Corbetts that lack recent records can become involved in contributing records and can find more information at: www.bumblebeeconservation.org/bumblebee-bagging
BSCG has long been involved in recording Bumblebees, including at An Camas Mor, where this queen was recently photographed visiting Gorse flowers, along with other insects, including various solitary bees, hoverflies and colourful Green Hairstreak butterflies.