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 : 2024
After a warm winter April turned cold, very wet and dull and everything just about stopped and it was near impossible to transect walk all month. By May there were already losses among our spring species being down a third in numbers. June brought Arctic winds, a complete reversal of the Hot June of 2023 when nine species reached all time highs here and across the UK. For the first two weeks of this June temperatures were 8’C cooler than in 2023 around a frigid 9’C with only 5 good days of sun at the end of the month. The first three weeks of July had the same theme of cool and damp with 5 warm sunny days at the end. Transect walking for many was very difficult. The persistence of the cold and damp over such a long period had a devastating effect with numerically two thirds of our butterflies in the critical later stages of their development; mortality was very high. It was also one of the longest June ‘Lulls’ lasting from late May to the beginning of July. When the main flight season did arrive it was slow to build up and there was no usual peak. Better weather in August helped save the second generation and very unusually numbers actually went up at the start of September.
Losers
For many species it was a triple whammy after the heat and droughts of the previous 2 years and last July’s poor flight period this year made it a perfect storm. Overall, annual numbers were down 41% against the average and 45% down on last year. Half our species were down more than 50% and a quarter down more than 70%. The Lycaenids, Vannesids and the Fritillaries were amongst the worst affected. Many transect walkers did not see a single Common Blue, Small Copper, Holly Blue, or Brown Argus until late into their 2nd broods.. Four of our long term declining species Common Blue, Small Heath, Small Skipper and Green-veined White had their worst year ever recorded.
The Winners and less bad losers
Northern Brown Argus had an exceptional year up near 50% Other species bucking the trend were Brimstone and Marbled White. The damp loving Ringlet on many limestone/dry sites were up a half while on most wet sites they fell by a half. However if it wasn’t for Ringlet holding up the overall numerical losses, this year would have been significantly worse. It often happens when Meadow Brown has a very poor year, like this one, Ringlet does proportionally better, and vice versa in a warm year.
It has all happened before… many times.
It was our worst year since 2016 but nearly as bad as 2009 when numbers were down 50%. 2024 comes after a run of 6 relatively good years since 2018 along with rapidly rising temperatures including 2 of our hottest summers which were followed by two of our best butterfly years in 2019 and 2023. It is likely 2024 was a blip
Results : 2023 Very Good considering...
County wide 2023 results reflect the 2022 and 2023 spring drought with Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock nearly halved for the second year against their 5 year average. Red Admiral arrived in force in July and took advantage of soft nettle growth of the rains and had their best year ever. Drought sensitive species on thin soils were badly hit, particularly Dark -green Fritillary and Northern Brown Argus but also Ringlet, Green-viened White and Small Heath. Less drought affected species along with the hottest June on record built even more on gains last year leading to Comma, Brimstone, Holly Blue and most Browns having a fantastic year reaching all time highs. A increase of 9% overall was mostly due to sheer numbers of Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers ment 2023 nearly pipped 2014 as best year in modern times. Most noticeable was the large differeces between mositure retaining mineral soils of the valleys and thin, dry limestone or sandy soils. A large number of damp grassland, hedgerow and woodland dominated sites benefitted hugely with 3 sites seeing more than 50% increase . A smaller number of thin, chalky, sandy or craggy sites did badly some down up to 25%.
Bishop Monkton s followed the county pattern with Gatekeeper, Comma, Holly Blue and Brimstone really booming doubling up on any previous good year even so the lack of whites and poor showing of the other Vanessids meant numbers were a tad down although Peacock showed the first signs of recovery. As at similar sites Small Skipper showed a good increase
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.