Sutton Park is one of the largest urban parks in Europe, being some 2,200 acres in area and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), it gained National Nature Reserve (NNR) status in March 1997. For the past 12 years an annual BioBlitz has taken place over 2 days and we as an association are proud to support this very important event which focuses on finding and identifying as many species as possible in a specific area over a short period of time. The primary goal of the BioBlitz is to get an overall count of the plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms that live in a place.
We are very fortunate to have our training apiary within this park and support the rangers wherever we can, so on Saturday 29th July we erected our gazebo, information boards and took along a virtual hive, observation hive and lots of other props to help engage and educate the public. This was an ideal opportunity to promote the importance of pollinating insects and give information about the Asian Hornet. A steady flow came to talk to members of our association and we were particularly pleased to see so many young people eager to learn.
We look forward to the written report from the rangers on this years BioBlitz results.