
Police Appeal

The Nonsuch Voles, Woodland Trust, Friends of Nonsuch, Friends of Whitehall and Friends of Cheam Park will all be at Cheam Charter Fair in Park Road, on Saturday 14th May. Come and say hello to our wonderful volunteers and find out more about what they do.
TOUCH RUGBY : Old Suttonians Rugby Club are running touch rugby in the park all through the summer. We meet at 10am on a Saturday morning in Nonsuch Park (school entrance where the military fitness set up) and run for an hour(ish) just to keep the hands warm and fitness up during the off season.
If you are interested in playing, please join the group in the link below and follow the updates weekly. We can accommodate all levels of ability as long as you are older than 11 and it is completely non-contact. It’s very relaxed and great fun, also a good way to work off that hangover! If you’re looking at getting back into the game after some time out or just looking for a bit of fitness, it’s a great way to stay sharp during the summer.
For more details go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/305244222971306/
After the very heavy rainfall over the past 48 hours, the Wickham Avenue culvert is helping to channel off a huge amount of water and preventing the properties in Wickham Avenue from flooding.
Many thanks to the Nonsuch Voles for digging out the ditch and culvert under the London Road and Sutton Council for providing the bridge.
We had heavy rain last night, which meant the ditch, at the bottom of Cheam Park really had to work hard. Normally it is bone dry and my children, when they were younger used to run along it.
Now there is a steady stream of water running along the ditch, into the balancing pond. The pond itself, which is normally a smelly, mud bath for the dog, is instead full to the brim, with mucky water.
Two independent film makers created a documentary series focusing on park life in Nonsuch over the course of one year. They met up with organisations working within the park as well as exploring the deep history and wildlife that lives on in the park.
This is a lovely Web Site, showing Nonsuch Park off at its best.
The site can be viewed here
There is nothing more lovely than walking through the woodland in late spring. The woodland between Nonsuch Park and Cheam Rec, is especially beautiful, after all the hard coppicing work by the Nonsuch Voles, two winters ago.
As the sunlight comes through, dormant seeds are awoken and new plants are discovered. Spanish Bluebells, Cow Parsley and an Apple Tree all help create some beautiful woodland.
This morning we had a little excitement when some Honey Bees Swarmed in Cheam Park. They decided to rest on the fence between the Depot and the burning ground. (They are the brown blob in the middle of the photo!)
Sutton Council called the Bee lady, who was only too happy to offer them a new home in one of her Bee Hives.
So why do Bees swarm?
The sight of swarming bees can certainly unnerve some people. However, it is a very natural and wonderful part of the life cycle of honey bees. If you are looking for advice on bee swarm removal, there is a link at the bottom of this page, however, you’ll certainly benefit from reading about this subject first, so do read on.
The honey bee colony has survived a cool winter. There are fewer bees in the colony than there were during the summer – the honey bee queen, and perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 workers, all huddled together to keep warm. There are no drones – they got the elbow at the end of summer, in order to conserve food resources!
If the bees live in a hive, then hopefully they had a kind beekeeper who ensured they would have enough of their own honey, full of nutrients and goodness, to sustain them.
As the weather warms up, the colony expands. More workers are produced. The colony maintains its efficiency through being extremely well organised. There may be 50,000 workers busily foraging, regulating the temperature in the hive, guarding the colony or tending to the brood, as well as feeding each other. The queen is busy laying, producing more workers, and finally drones.
Throughout all this activity, something else very important is happening: communication through ‘pheromones’.
Bee pheromones are produced by workers, drones and the queen. The pheromone is passed on through ‘food sharing’ – the members of the colony feed each other, thereby transmitting the pheromone. So, in the act of feeding, the bees are also communicating with each other. This is known as ‘trophallaxis’.
The queen honey bee produces the ‘queen pheromone’. This pheromone attracts the workers to her, and encourages them to build the comb, forage, and tend the brood. The whole colony knows it must have a queen for its continued survival, so the honey bee queen plays a very important role. You can learn more about her by clicking here.
But now back to the colony.
There is only one honey bee queen, and there are now thousands and thousands of workers. There comes a point when the crowd is so great, that not all of the workers have access to the queen. They are no longer receiving her pheromone signals, and so for them, she is non-existent!
This induces within these workers the need to create a new honey bee queen. If you’d like to know how queens are made, click on the link I highlighted above.
Soon, we shall have swarming bees! Why?
There is no space in the colony for more than one queen (oh, and over-crowding in a hive can also encourage swarming). Before the new queen emerges, the old queen takes off with part of the colony to establish a new nest, but before leaving their original colony, all of the bees will fill themselves up on nectar. Once the swarm has left its old nest or hive, this is when we might see a whirling mass of swarming bees in the air, or a bee swarm settled on the branch of a tree (or possibly somewhere not so convenient!).
Why do they fly around in a clump?
The reason a bee swarm looks like a clump of bees, is because all of the workers are gathered around the queen, hence forming a clump.
But note, the queen is not the strongest of flyers, and so inevitably will need to rest at some point – perhaps on a branch, post or fence. Meanwhile, ‘Scout bees’ will be sent out to look for a suitable new place for the colony to live.
They are focused on finding a new nest, not on attacking. That said, it is important to keep your distance from swarming bees, because if the bees feel threatened, then it is possible they will sting.
A swarm may stay around for a few days, depending on how quickly the scout bees find a suitable new home. This could happen very quickly, even within a day.
If, however, you come across a bee swarm that really is too inconvenient to tolerate, then firstly:
Sunday 8th May
Starting at 9:30am, at Nonsuch Mansion House
Online only. Entries on the day subject to race not selling out beforehand.
CLOSING DATE: 5th May 2016 (on line).
ENTRY LIMIT: 500
COST: £14 affiliated – £16 unaffiliated – £20 on the day (subject to not selling out beforehand).
Nonsuch Junior Parkrun meet every Sunday at 9:00am outside Nonsuch Mansion House. They hold a timed 2km run, for youngsters aged 4 -14.
This Sunday they had a whopping 178 runners on Sunday. Well done everybody.
Nonsuch Parkrun is free! But you do need to register before your first run. You only ever need to register with Parkrun once. But don’t forget to bring a printed copy of your barcode with you when you come for a run.
And now they need our help. Please can you volunteer for just half an hour on a Sunday? They need some people to slip on a hi-viz jacket and do a spot of marshalling, in addition to 2 people to act as tail runners and look after the stragglers.
Email their volunteer co-ordiantor on: nonsuch-juniorshelpers@parkrun.com.
More details on Nonsuch Junior Parkrun can be found here