Bolton Percy 

Station YWT

Tadcaster

Site Details:

Recorders:  Sarah Mawby + Sam Watson                  Distance:  480m       Walk Time  approx 40mins

This tiny site is consists of the old station platform and surrounding track bed of ballast and chalk  are are favourites with Common Blue and other grassland species species including Small Heath.  The platform has overgrown with shrub along with surrounding overgrown Hedgerows and the open mosaic of  yard area has been badly damaged by railway operations . Wall Brown used to be common and Dingy Skipper was seen but not in recent years. 

Sections:

The Vanessids very much favour the sunny hedgerow with tall herbs  of S1  bordering the field while Speckled Woods prefer the shady trackside woodland of S4+5.   S4 is also a favourite for Gatekeepers, Holy Blue Meadow Browns and Orange tips. Common Blue prefers the open area of  old track-bed S1. The old platform previously the centre of butterfly action is now overgrown.  The site is beginning to scrub up and the beds of Birds foot trefoil are much reduced.  

Results 2023

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%.

Bolton Percy showed similar trends to teh county but with some exceptionally good  results for Holy Blue and Comma and bucking the trend Smal lheath on the lowland location had a good year,  Losers were as teh county trends. Overall numbers were above the county trend at 16%  due to very good numbers of Small White.

Transect reports 2020

Results 2022

The site  had a very much better year  and shows many similarities with other sites. Large White was down while Small white  was  well up compared to last year. Green viened white bucked the county trend and was a  tad down here.   Orange Tip  as elsewhere was up.  Its great to see the Common Blue come back and Holy Blue boomed universally. As with elsewhere Red Admiral was up  and the Small Torst and Peacock had a disasterous second brood and were universally down as here.  In common  with elsewhere, and in contrast to the other vanessids,  Comma boomed.  Speckled wood was up as in the majority of the county.  Following the county pattern the Browns did well apart from Small Heath that  dropped back on its bumper year last year. 

Results 2021

Overall numbers were down rather more than the average for Yorkshire but similar to nearby transects . It did buck the trend with one of the few places where Comma and Holy Blue, Speckled Wood and Ringlet  increased  which might be related to the increasing scrub. In line with the Yorkshire trends  gatekeeper  had a good year universally

Results:   2020

Although overall number stayed about the same there were more losers than winners. Losers were in particular Common Blue and Holy Blue but also Peacock ,Small Heath and Speckled woods  were down. In contrast Gatekeepers were way up and the boom in Small Tortoiseshells was seen here as well along with gains in the Whites