Bishop Monkton
Railway YWT
Ripon
Site Details
Recorders: Anthony Garnett, Bob Upton, Caroline Page Distance: 600m Walk Time: 30- 40mins
Just west of the village . Dry semi unimproved rather shaded grassland of the old railway bed surrounded by high hedging and clumps of nettles and willowherb and a few maturing trees. The cutting is through the magnesian limestone and the sides are closing with tree growth. It is set amongst intensive arable agriculture including Maize and cereals .
Sections:
The transect covers the open area north of the Road S1 and then crosses the road and south following the railway bed to S5 and then back again on a similar route to the starting point S1.
S2 seems to contain the best of the grassland species, while S5-6 appears to be rather shady
Results : 2022
Another poor year down a fifth. Small Skipper bucked the trend with an increase but as with the majority of sites Large Skipper was well down. Brimstone was seen for first time since 2017 and has seen an increase in general. Whites bucked the trend in being up while over teh county they were down but with a big intersite variation. In cntrast Orange tip not so good here while on the majority of sites was up. As with many sites Brown Argus returned in force to many sites after a absence and Holy Blue had an exceptional year exactly in line with trends elsewhere. Small Copper down as was this year's county pattern. Red Admiral was well up as elsewhere but Small Torts and Peacock were less than half which is the pattern on most sites. Comma was up which is on trend with the county. Speckled Wood although up on last year was down against 5 y Average while most sites exceeded the average strongly. Gatekeeper had a very strong showing throughout the county as it did here. Meadow Brown and Ringet were down while on most sites they were slightly and consistantly up.
Overall the site follows county trends apart from the Whites and Browns.
Results : 2021
A rather poor year compared to the recent past but inline with earlier years.
Only Large White had a exceptional year possibly from surrounding crops.
The Golden Skippers had a particularly poor year
All the Vanessids were very poor as elsewhere however Small Tortoiseshell was down only slightly and the best of the bunch while on most sites it has continued to boom as it did last year.
Wall Brown, Gatekeeper and Holy Blue absent this year
Results : 2020
There are no big changes just a small decrease in 2020 with numbers fairly stable year on year recently. In this somewaht shaded grassland Ringlet and the Whites are predominant and showed increases. Peacock numbers have considerable variation with a boom in 2019. Large Skipper had a poorer year. Small Tortoiseshell was highlight for 2020 seems to be on a boom after a rise in recent years. The occasional visitor highlights were Wall Brown, Common Blue and Small Copper . Migrant Painted Lady was absent and Red Admirals well down.