Thanks to Janice Robinson and Mike LeRoy for their input. The most likely option seems to be:
It could be a male. Males don’t have pollen baskets, have a seventh abdominal segment (females have six), they have a more blunt tip to the abdomen with no sting, their antennae have an extra segment and curve away from the face. Perhaps a closer look at the original photo might show some of these features? The possibilities then are:

1. The male of the Red-tailed bumblebee Bombus lapidarius, which has some yellow on the face, a band of yellow on the front of the thorax and a narrow one at the rear of the thorax, as well as the red tail. Males have visibly longer hair; the hair of the photographed bumble looks rather punky. Males of this species emerge from June.

2. The male of the Red-tailed cuckoo-bee Bombus rupestris, which has two faded yellow bands on front and back of the thorax, but also narrow pale straw-coloured bands on the abdomen, and the red tail. Males emerge July and August.

The Bilberry bumblebee Bombus monticola tends to be in mountains, uplands and moorlands. The only place I have seen it is amongst heather close to the Kerry Ridgeway in Shropshire, close to the Welsh border.

Original Post:Julie would like help to identify a Fuzzy Bumble (no it’s not something you do after a night at the pub).

In Julie words

Not a great photo but the only bee I can see that resembles it in any way is the bilberry bumblebee, bombus monticola which is not meant to be in this part of the country.

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