Allerthorpe
Common
Managed by Forestry England and YWT
Site Details
Recorders: Steve and Penny Relf Length 2867m Walk Time 1 hour Altitude 18m
Allerthorpe Common lies on river and lake sands, which were deposited during the last glacial period 10,000 years ago. The soils are acidic and support a surprising range of habitats for such a small pocket of lowland heath - wet heath, dry heath, acid grassland, woodland, scrub and open water. Ling heather, tormentil, sheep's fescue and wavy hair-grass grow on the drier areas of the site. Cross-leaved heath and purple moor grass grow in the damper areas. Patches of gorse and areas of mature birch and willow woodland. The Transect route covers a good many of these habitats
Sections:
Section 1 in the wood is prefered by Brimstone and Speckled wood . Gatekeeper, Large Skippers and Meadow Browns with Peacock prefer prefer S4 +S5 while Ringlets very much favour S6
The section counts are shown opposite
2022 Results
The Skippers follow the county trend downwards as do the whites with small white being the exception with a large increase over last year. In this largely woodland site Brimstone is exceptionaly abundant and third most common species and had another good year simalar to last. Other species generally follow the county trend with teh Vannesids overwintering well but , other than Comma, halving with the second generation largely absent , while, cCmma had a really good summer brood. Speckled Wood as elsewhere were abundant and well up on last year. The browns followed almost exactly other county sites with Ringlet well up and Meadow Brown a tad down. Overall a bit down on last year which was teh case in other woodland sites nearby mostly because of the Vanessids collapse.
